


Molly Kimura, Half-Blood Nudist

by DrowsyAthena



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Adventure, Big sister vibes Annabeth, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), F/F, Fluff, Illustrations, Images, Kiss the Booboo, Lap Pillow, Lesbian Character, Love Triangles, NSFW Art, Naked Sword Lesbian, Naked friend clothed friend, Nudism, POV First Person, Playful teasing, Prophecy, Prophetic Dreams, Public Nudity, Quest, She accepts her for who she is!, Slice of Life, Slow Romance, Sunless Bum, Sword Training, Useless Lesbians, camp life, non-sexual nudity, only one naked, rivals to friends, she is naked literally the entire time, sleepy girlfriend, wholesome nudity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:27:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 27,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28752171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrowsyAthena/pseuds/DrowsyAthena
Summary: Molly Kimura is a daughter of Hermes, aspiring hero, and a stubborn nudist. Follow her as she tries to make a name for herself as an adventurer and disturbs the peace at Camp Half-Blood.Comics at the end of each chapter provided by OliviaThinksSheCanWrite.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Comments: 24
Kudos: 39





	1. The Nudist

It was my second year at camp half blood and for some reason people were still surprised to see me. Okay, I knew the reason, I just get really annoyed when I think about it. I was naked. Fully nude and uncovered, out and about for everyone to see. I have been for most of my last year, and I planned to remain this way for the entirety of my second year.

Actually, for like the first half of the first year, I was kind of told to tone it down. To put on some shorts or at least wear an extra-large orange shirt so long as I was outside of the Hermes cabin. At the end of that year I started ignoring those increasingly pointed requests and just started to “forget” my clothes while I was outside.

Dionysus didn’t really mind —he was a god, after all, and they kind of had a different perspective on nudity than most of us mere mortals had— but Chiron tried to chew me out over it a few times, but what does he know? He doesn’t even wear any pants. He tried to tell me that it would be distracting to the other hormonal teenagers at the camp if I was allowed to walk around without any clothes on, and I tried to tell him that it was my right as a descendant of the Greek gods to remain in the altogether.

Yeah, a lot of people stared, but I was prepared to force everyone to get used to it by the end of the year.

Judging by the beginning of this year, I don’t think anyone was used to it, yet...

Oh, sorry for not introducing myself. I’m Molly Kimura, daughter of Hermes, and full time nudist. I’m fourteen and this is my second year. As of now, we all just narrowly avoided the second end of the world or something, Rome invaded but we’re cool now. Wild stuff. Things are pretty chill now, I guess, except for the fact that, you know, we’re Greek demigods training to be heroes and all that jazz. Nothing really “chill” about that, not gonna lie.

Speaking of not being chill, people here are just not chill.

Okay, so it’s lunch now. I sit at the end of the Hermes table, and my brothers and sisters and non-binary siblings are doing their best to not sit next to me or even look for too long in my general direction, you know, on account of me being all naked and stuff. It’s kind of like how I was given the top bunk on the far, far corner of the cabin, where it was most difficult to see me.

And it’s not just them. It’s a bunch of kids from the other tables, too. They tried to hide it but they were looking and pointing and snickering at me. Especially the Aphrodite table. Those kids freaking loved to gossip, and right now, I was their favorite subject. I have to wonder what kind of tea they were spilling about the naked Hermes girl. I would have loved to hear some of those gossip sessions.

I won’t lie to you. It felt kinda isolating. I felt like a freak, and yeah, I know, I could have just put on clothes and tried to fit in, but that just wouldn’t be right. I mean, first off, everyone’s already seen me naked, and they’ve probably seen a whole lot of me naked, so going back and trying to cover up wasn’t going to change the fact that that was just going to be what they saw when they looked at me. I was always going to be the naked freak in their eyes.

Second, it just wouldn’t be true to me. I’m a nudist, it’s who I am, and I didn’t want to give up that part of me. Not here, in this camp where I was theoretically allowed to remain like this for as long as I behaved —and I planned to behave like any other kid at this camp, with that one notable exception. This was too good of an opportunity for me to finally live life the way that I wanted to live it, except now with a sword in my hand sometimes. And I liked the sword. I was good at the sword... but nobody ever wanted to duel me, so nobody ever got to see how good with the sword I am.

I ate quietly. I didn’t talk to anyone, and nobody even tried to talk to me. Afterwards, it was downtime. A lot of my siblings and the other campers returned to their cabins to get unpacked and situated and stuff, but I didn’t really need to do that. I pack pretty light, except for the few volumes of My Hero Academia I brought with me.

I went to the lake and dipped my feet into the water. I tried to relax and get my mind off of the day, telling myself that it will get better, the other campers will get used to me, and I’ll even make some friends.

Last year I didn’t make friends...

I was mostly alone. Except for the nymphs, and some satyrs, who were pestering the nymphs, or at least rushing to try to. They were all bad flirts, but I couldn’t say I was any better. I don’t think I could flirt if I tried.

I liked nymphs. Not only were they very pretty, but they didn’t really look at me any different for being naked. I get the feeling that, given the option or maybe a gentle nod in my direction, they’d probably join me, too.

I was kind of jealous of the satyrs, though. Not only did a lot of them get to date nymphs, but they were all allowed to not wear pants. Talk about unfair...

I heard quick steps in the grass. It couldn’t be a nymph, they were normally quieter than that. Had to be another Half-Blood. I turned to check out who it was.

She was a girl. Blonde, tall, tan, pretty, with striking grey eyes. She was in caprese pants, her orange camp tee, running shoes, and an open hoodie. She was jogging when she saw me and slowed down.

I knew who she was... this was Annabeth Chase. She’s famous in this camp. Almost as famous as her boyfriend.

She stopped her job and looked down on me.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m kind of dense when it comes to people, but even I could see it when Annabeth started to stall and think of what was the right thing to say to me, what was the appropriate way to handle the situation of a naked camper.

“Hey,” she said. She sounded friendly enough. That was all it took really. Now I had a massive crush on her, I’m such a sap. “You’re Molly Kimura, right?”

Oh gods, she knew my name. Flustering intensifies. “I— yeah. That me.”

 _That me?_ Gods I’m hopeless, why can’t I just speak words correctly? I immediately looked ahead to the water, blinked a few times, then looked back up at Annabeth hoping I’d be able to keep going on from there without further embarrassing myself.

“I, uh... thought so,” Annabeth said.

“Oh. What gave it away?” I asked. I wanted it to sound funny, but the way that I said it sounded

“Just a hunch,” Annabeth said with a shrug. She had a nice smile. She gave off some real older sister vibes, which I could only assume I knew what that meant, considering I didn’t have an older sister at home, and all of my older sisters in the Hermes cabin didn’t really want anything to do with me.

Annabeth sighed, then said, “Mind if I rest here beside you?”

I wasn’t expecting that. “Um... no. G—go ahead.”

Annabeth sat down only a few feet from me, legs crossed under her as she looked out at the lake.

Nothing was said for a bit. I didn’t know what to say, so obviously I wasn’t going to be the first one to talk.

Then Annabeth spoke. Conversationally. To me. Gods, what a day this was.

“Are you having a good time at Camp?” She asked.

I swallowed. I didn’t know how to answer that. On one hand, I loved this place more than I loved anywhere else. It gave me a sense of belonging that I just didn’t have back when I didn’t even know I was a demigod. On the other hand... things were kind of rough. I wasn’t really fitting in, I knew why I wasn’t fitting in, and I wasn’t willing to make the change to get everyone to accept me. And, like I mentioned before, my reputation was probably way too far gone to redeem myself this late in the game.

The best I could muster was, “Oh yeah. Great time. I’m loving it.”

Annabeth seemed to immediately see through that.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

My defenses were weak. I let out a sigh and said. “I’m not... fitting in.”

“Really?” Annabeth asked in mock surprise.

“Ha ha funny,” I said.

“Well,” Annabeth said, “forgive me for stating the obvious solution but... you could always... I don’t know, wear clothes if you want to fit in?”

My shoulders slumped. “I don’t want to do that, either,” I said. “It’s um... I’m a nudist and all, and it’s a part of me that I don’t really want to give up. Do you understand?”

“Yeah. Sort of,” Annabeth said.

“I just... I think if I was given the chance to prove myself in some way, things would be better, right?”

“Well, I certainly relate to that,” Annabeth said.

“Like the sword,” I kept on. “I’m really good with the sword, back from when I was still practicing with my clothes on. But nobody ever wants to duel with me unless they’re forced to or something. And I know why, but... _ugh_ , you know?”

“It’s tough sometimes,” Annabeth said. “I... can’t really say that I know exactly what you’re going through, but I do know what it’s like to want to prove yourself, and not really being given the opportunity to do that. It’s frustrating, but... I think it comes for you, you know.”

“Huh?”

Annabeth shook her head. “Oh. Nothing.”

I wanted to ask what she meant by ‘it comes for you,’ but I decided not to.

“You know what I need?” I asked, instead.

“What?”

“I need a quest,” I said. “I need to be called into some heroics and get out into the world and save the day, just as I am.”

“Well, Molly, I’m going to have to tell you to be careful of what you wish for,” Annabeth said. “Quests are... a _lot_. Too much if you’re not ready for it. They’re not really something to wish upon yourself if I’m going to be honest.”

“But you’ve been on so many of them,” I said.

“I know. That’s why I’m saying this.” She was looking me in the eyes, her pupils so amazingly grey it was hard to focus on anything else. “But I don’t mean to discourage you. If you’re chosen for a quest, I am sure that you would prove yourself to the entire camp.”

I smiled weakly. “You think so?”

“I’ve got a gut feeling,” Annabeth said. “But I’m sure you’ll win the camp over before you have to do that. They just have to get to know you.”

Cheesy ‘believe in yourself’ line as it was,I couldn’t help but kind of... believe it. It made me feel better.

Annabeth reached out and put her hand on my shoulder. It was the first time any of the other campers had made any kind of non-accidental contact with me at all. It felt so warm, so nice. “But if you need someone to talk to, I’m always here.”

“Th-thanks. That means a lot,” I said.

“I have some other things to attend to,” Annabeth said, patting on my shoulder and standing up. For some reason, I stood up along with her, taking my feet out of the water. I felt really short next to her, but I was pretty petite to begin with, and Annabeth was pretty tall all things considered. “I’ll see you later?” She asked, offering her hand.

I nodded dumbly a few times and said, “Yeah, I’ll see you later,” and I shook her hand.

“Good. In the meantime... I don’t know, why don’t you go back to the camp and go try to make some friends?”

“I’ll try,” I said shyly, and we let go of our hands.

“Seeya,” she said, saluting me off and jogging on away. I watched her go.

That felt... good. I felt good again. I felt like I had a chance in this camp again.

I turned in the direction of the rest of the camp, put my hands to my hips, and I nodded.

“Okay Molly, you can do this,” I told myself, talking to myself like a dope or an anime character or something, “you’re going to make this your year. You’re going to prove yourself to the other half-bloods.”

I took in a deep breath and I walked forward. It was about time to make the best of this year.


	2. The Dreamer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Added another chapter because I was slightly uncomfortable having a fanfic with only an introductory chapter up lol Anyway, hope you enjoy!

I was back at the camp. It looked like everyone else had finished unpacking and they were now spending their downtime recreationally. Some of the Ares kids were tossing a shield between each other like it was a frisbee, and the Apollo kids were on the archery range taking turns throwing apples into the sky and shooting them as they fell. I couldn’t see any of the other Hermes kids, so I figured that they must all still be inside.

I was walking, trying to remain as casual as possible, hands held together behind my back, one foot in front of the other. If I pretended that I was normal, they might actually believe it.

Nope, as it turns out, it doesn’t work that way. Here’s how it actually went. It started off pretty small, but very noticeable with the Apollo kids. One of them caught me in the corner of her eye and missed their apple with their arrow. The fruit fell ineffectually onto the grass. That was nothing. Not compared to what happened with the Ares kids. One of the brutes just completely took his eyes off the shield to gawk at me and it smacked him straight across the face, dropping him onto the ground like a falling tree. I might have even seen a tooth or two fly out of his mouth.

While the Ares cabin typically treated the loss of a tooth like a battle wound, I got the idea that one that happened on account of some stupid accident like this wasn’t going to be celebrated. It was probably going to be talked about a heck of a lot, but only to make fun of him.

I felt kind of bad about it. I wanted to blame him for not paying attention to the game, but... well, I was being pretty stubbornly myself, and that tended to distract a lot of people. I’d make the Aphrodite kids jealous with the way I can draw eyes straight to me. Knowing them I probably do.

I tried not to look at the mess that I guess I technically caused. I moved on forward as if I didn’t see it. All nonchalant like.

Gods I’m a wreck and so is everyone around me. Because of me, I guess, which only made me feel like more of a wreck.

The real kicker here is that, even with everything happening like it was, with the ways that the other campers very conspicuously noticed me, I still didn’t even feel naked. I was. I was very, very naked, with not even my hands being used to cover up all the parts that other people seemed offended by. I was a little self conscious about the fact that since last year, I grew a pretty thick patch of fuzz on my crotch, but that was different than merely being embarrassed over the fact that you’re naked. It was something that I thought looked kind of weird, but I didn’t really want to make the effort to shave off. It was like being self-conscious about a new fashion or whatever that you weren’t sure you were wearing right, or even if it fit you to begin with.

Except, you know, with the catch here being that this wasn’t clothes, it was just my pubes.

I looked around for... for I don’t know what. Something to do, someone to talk to. It was tough. Everybody was pretty cliquey nowadays, either hanging out exclusively with their half siblings from their own cabins, or with the friends that they made last year. Believe me, it’s pretty tough on you when your own cabin doesn’t want to hang with you and you somehow managed to go through the entirety of last year without making any lasting friends. Or, you know, people that you can call friends and not feel like you’re stretching the truth kind of thin.

There had to be some other loners out here... as much as I liked her, I’d hate for my only friend to be the older counselor who took pity on me while I was looking at my own reflection in the lake. It just wouldn’t be cool. I mean, Annabeth is just about the epitome of cool, at least from where I see her, but... I don’t know, there were just layers to it.

It’s kind of like I have to earn her friendship, somehow. I loved that she was nice to me, but, well, you know.

I just really want to be someone that, when the other campers look at me, they think of something other than the fact that I’m a weird nudist, and I want to do that without giving up the part of me that’s a weird nudist. It’s that kind of ordeal, I guess.

Hmph. Ordeal. Fancy word for what’s just my big old sappy problem.

Don’t get me wrong, as far as the standard is, this whole camp has been extremely accepting in merely the fact that I can walk around naked without it being any more of an issue than that there are people who stare, people who whisper, and a Hades ton of people who wouldn’t want to be caught dead hanging around me. That was great. This was more than I’ve been given in any public space that wasn’t a nudist beach or rec center.

This was going to be a long process, wasn’t it? This wasn’t going to be something that I can set my mind to fixing and then go ahead and fix it that same day. I would have loved for that, but nope. Things don’t just work out for me so easily.

I should probably stop moping, shouldn’t I? I mean, this is exactly where I want to be and all. I’m thankful, I promise, it’s just that, you know...

Read the above paragraphs I guess if you want to hear it again.

I continued my walk. At least everyone was kind of polite. No whistles or cat calling, which to be honest I kind of expected from teenaged boys. Not that they would have been able to get anywhere with me. I’m as gay as a parade, and I have the habit of mentioning it whenever I had the chance.

I kept on walking, kept on thinking, eyes to the sky, no idea what I was going to do to make sure that I finished this year with friends to keep me company for next year.

Then I tripped.

My foot caught on something that I most definitely would have noticed if I had been paying any sort of attention to where my feet were going, I timbered and yelped all the way down, falling on my side and rolling slightly. I probably scraped my knee or something, but this was Camp Half-Blood, so worse was more than likely to happen, eventually, and there was always an Apollo kid around who was willing to practice on some minor cuts and scrapes.

I groaned, and I turned my head over to what I had tripped on, realizing that it was a who. A girl about my age, slightly taller than me, dressed in heavy layers for what temperature it was, all in different shades of purple. Her hood was up, and thick brown hair spilled out. She wore glasses, and they were turned crooked on her face from the impact of me tripping over her. We were close. Pretty much face to face.

She was... waking up? Her eyes squeezed shut and then opened. Her lips smacked and her breath smelled a bit off, like it tends to when you’re just waking up and you haven’t brushed your teeth yet.

“Oh... um... hel-lo,” she said as she saw my face in front of hers. “Did... you trip over... me?” She said as she became more and more aware of her surroundings. She was so drowsy, and in a way that meant she was, without a shadow of a doubt, a daughter of Hypnos.

“Yes...” I said.

“Sorry...” She said, sitting up and, seemingly just then, noticing the obvious. “Wait... she said, her eyes —looking huge now that they were properly behind her glasses— panning over my prone body a few times as if she didn’t believe it the first time over. “Are you naked?” She asked.

I sit up. We’re still facing each other. “Yes,” I said. I was kind of surprised that she was, surprised. I mean, I thought I would have been fairly well known in the camp by now if only for that reason. Then again, if someone was going to miss something incredibly obvious until the point where she was face to face with the evidence, it was going to be a Hypnos kid.

“Oh...” she said. She wasn’t blushing, but reactions came slow to the sleepy. “Wow... um... why are you... why are you naked?” She asked me.

“Because,” I started, thinking of other ways to answer it for some reason before I remembered that there was an obvious, honest answer, and that it was probably the only good answer, “I’m a nudist,” I said.

“Oh,” she said, but not in the usual way that people said ‘oh’ when I told them I was a nudist. Not like she was judging me at all for it or anything. “Interesting...” she said, wiping her mouth with her sleeve. There was a bit of sleepy drool on her lip.

I looked at her. She was a very pretty girl, but I thought most girls were very pretty. Still, there was something in the way the tired lines under her eyes complimented her small, pouty mouth and slightly hooked nose.

Something clicked in my head. It didn’t have anything to do with the fact that I found her attractive or anything, mind you, but it occurred to me that this sleepy girl might just be the answer to some of my problems.

“Hey,” I spurt out, “um... what’s your name?” I asked.

“I’m...” she started, then began to curl her fingers through her curling bangs as she thought. She had to actually think and try to remember her own name, gods these Hypnos kids are something else. “Oh. I’m Amelia Hernandez. I’m from the Hypnos cabin.”

I nodded. “Yup. I think I gathered that.”

She smiled drowsily. “And you are?” She asked.

“Molly Kimura. From the Hermes cabin.”

“Nice to meet you, Molly,” Amelia said.

Okay, now for the part where I had to be a little brave. It was silly, I know. I wanted to go out on quests and battle monsters completely naked like some of the old Greek heroes did, but I considered what I was about to say next something that required a similar amount of bravery.

“Hey, um... you doing anything now?”

“Huhm?”

“I’m just...” I starting running my fingers through my long black hair. It’s the only real thing that I had around to play with. “I’m just looking for...” I didn’t want to say that I was looking for friends. That sounded sooooo sad and I didn’t want Amelia to think that I was a pathetic loser or anything. This was just about the best first impression I’ve ever had with anyone —and I freaking tripped over her sleeping body— and I didn’t want to ruin that kind of good progress. I didn’t know how to say it other than in that way, though, so I was stalling up.

“Are you saying that you want to hang out?” Amelia asked.

I breathed easy. “Yeah. That’s what I’m trying to say. Sorry, I’m kind of... awkward.”

“Funny,” Amelia said.

“Funny?”

“Oh, not that you’re awkward. I mean, kind of that you’re awkward. I mean that, like, you’re naked, right? Outside? In front of everyone, unless I’m in some kind of really deep dream or something. It’s just that I kind of thought that someone with the kind of guts to do that would be a bit more confident. But never mind it, really, I’m rambling.”

“I... yeah, you’re probably right. It is a little strange, I guess.”

“I didn’t say you were strange,” Amelia said. “But, well, you kind of are a little bit strange, if we’re being honest.”

“Hah. Yeah... I guess.” I was still nervously playing with my hair. I didn’t know what was happening.

“It’s not a bad thing,” Amelia said.

“Oh.”

“What do you want to do?” Amelia asked.

“What?”

“You said you wanted to hang out,” Amelia said. “What do you want to do?”

“Oh... Oh!” I said. “I mean, oh. I didn’t think that far ahead, haha.”

Amelia yawned. “That’s okay. We can... talk. That’s the word. Over at the tables?” She asked.

I smiled. “Yeah. Over at the tables.” I said, nodding like a puppy. I was much too eager, but also, I felt pretty freaking eager.

We walked side by side, and for once, I didn’t notice if anyone was staring at me.

We sat side-by-side on the table’s bench. Amelia rested her head on her arms, on the table, but she remained pretty awake. I was pretty surprised to see how she didn’t mind, well, looking at me. Like, she knew where to look, I mean. She looked at my eyes, and on the occasions that she looked anywhere else, she never made a big show about averting her gaze or anything. In short, I guess she just looked at me like she would look at someone who was wearing clothes.

We talked about how we got here, first.

“Mine was boring,” Amelia said. “I fell asleep on the subway and when I woke up, it was just me and my satyr. He explained to me what I was, and he walked me home and talked to my mother. She knew, I guess, which doesn’t always happen, I heard. Well... now I’m here. First year and... I don’t know what to think.” She chuckled and blinked sleepily. “I think I liked meeting all of my new siblings. That was nice. The um... the training for heroics and things like that... that’s going to be... something. I’m not a very physically apt person.” She chuckled again.

“I don’t think that you have to be,” I said. “I think Hypnos kids have more to do with, like, magic and prophecy.”

“Well, I am pretty good at dreaming, I guess. I wouldn’t mind practicing with sleeping, I guess. It sounds pretty nice when you say it like that... how did you get here? Were you naked then, too?”

“Hah. Not really. Not outdoors and in public, I mean,” I said. “It’s the real world out there, you know. I can’t really get away with this out there like I can in here. So... this is really nice, I guess.”

“You like to be seen?” Amelia asked.

I shrugged. “Not really. I just like to be me, and when you have to hide that part of you whenever you’re outside, it just gets kind of tired, right?”

“I can understand that. But how did your satyr find you?”

“Well, I was in a mall,” I said.

“Wait, people go to malls, still?”

“I live in a very antiquated little town, okay? People there still like going to malls and so do I.”

“Okay. Fair,” Amelia said, smiling. “Not naked?”

“Of course not,” I said. I liked that she was already joking around about it, and not avoiding the subject. “I was mostly dressed. Anyways, this boy came up to me while I was eating cheese fries and started talking crazy talk. Like, you know, how most of this Camp Half-Blood stuff sounds when you first hear it. ‘You’re a demigod, Molly,’ like, gods, they gotta get better at selling the concept, am I right?”

“Doesn’t sound like you should have ever believed him,” Amelia said.

“I needed convincing,” I said.

“What kind of convincing?”

“Monsters,” I said. “I saw my first monster that day, and it was like I was seeing the real world for the very first time. So me and the satyr started running, we were hiding around in the parking lot, and then some demigods came in with swords and arrows and they dusted those monsters right in front of my eyes. It was pretty freaking intense, like... it left me no choice but to believe after that.

“I can see that,” Amelia said. “Your story makes mine look absolutely boring. Not that I’m complaining. I kind of like it when things are boring.” She laughed to herself and out came a snort that sounded a lot like a snore. It was terrible endearing, especially in the way that she didn’t mind that it had happened.

“So I’m going to learn magic?”Amelia asked.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. You could.”

“What kind of magic? Like shooting fireballs out of my hands or something like that?”

“I doubt that,” I said. “That sounds more like a Hecate thing.”

“Hecate is the goddess of...” she began, then trailed off to the point where I was fairly certain that she wasn’t about to find her way back on track on her own power.

“Magic.”

“Makes sense,” Amelia said. “What kind of magic do I learn?”

“Um... sleep magic?” I said.

“That sounds cool,” Amelia said. I wasn’t sure about whether or not she was being sarcastic or not. She had a lazy tone of voice that could go either way. “And what do Hermes kids do?”

“A lot,” I said with a bit of pride in my voice. “We’re messengers and thieves and stuff like that. But thieves in a good way. Sometimes.” I wasn’t sure if I should bring up the fact that we are also pretty notorious pranksters. Maybe it was my own mischief running through my veins, but I felt like that was something that she should probably find out for herself. “I’m pretty good with the sword.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, a lot of the practice is against dummies and the air. Not a lot of my other siblings want to fight me.”

“On account of you being naked?”

I nodded. “Yeah, that might have something to do with it.”

“And you don’t want to wear clothes?”

I shook my head. “Not at all.”

“I see the problem,” she said. “Wish I could be of help, there, but I wouldn’t know which end of the sword to grab if you handed me one.”

I laughed. “Not the pointy one.”

“Thanks.”

We both smiled. We kept on talking. Little things, bits and pieces of gossip about the other classmates. It was nice. I forgot how it felt like to just connect to someone. I couldn’t really connect to anyone back home, away from camp. Things felt weird being a demigod and having to keep that secret from them. They’d just never understand who I am and whatever I was going through on each day.

Eventually, the sun started to set, and Amelia let out a ferocious yawn that suggested she wasn’t going to last too much longer.

“We should probably head back to the cabins. Long day tomorrow,” I said.

She nodded. “See you then?” She asked.

It took me a while to process that, but when I did, I nodded. “Y—yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She patted me on the back and then stood up, walking away. “Seeya Molly,” she said.

“Seeya Amelia,” I said, and got up, myself. Back to the Hermes cabin, feeling lighter than I had felt in a while.


	3. Cabin 11

The Hermes cabin always felt cramped to the point of it being full to bursting. The kids moved from one end of the main room to the next, colliding and swerving all along the way. I never really minded it, though. I think it might have something to do with being a child of Hermes that I was comfortable being stuffed in a full room with a bunch of obnoxiously loud dopes —my half siblings and the as of yet unclaimed. It’s not one of our “powers” or something like that, you know, like how we’re all kind of quick on our feet and pretty good at picking locks.

I was bumped into a whole lot as I wormed my way over to my assigned room in the corner. When somebody bumped into me, and noticed that their leg or arm just brushed against some naked skin, or gods forbid, a boob or my thick tuft of hair, they normally turned this bright red shade and then try to figure out how their mouth works in order for them to apologize.

I don’t really mind. Not if it’s an accident, anyways. As far as I was concerned, this was my uniform, after all, so it would be weird(er) of me to put it out there and then get bothered when the inevitable brush up occurs.

I tell them it’s okay and move on. I’m actively pushing through people, and once they start realizing that’s what I’m doing, I’m given a wide berth. I guess it’s nice to be given the space... I kind of wish I wasn’t given it, though. This was a whole big loud chaotic mess and I kind of wanted to fit into it like everyone else here, did. I wanted to be a part of this chaos.

I pushed on into my room. Twelve bunks and some sleeping bags on the floor, most of them occupied by now. It was almost time for lights out. Some of the other kids were in a slight state of undress, entirely due to changing from their clothes to their pajamas, and nothing really less than that. It was an all girl’s room, so there was a little less awkwardness about me being naked, here. Only a little. The girls looked, some of them gave me a _look_ , and then they continued getting ready for the night.

I climbed up the ladder onto my bunk. It was positioned in kind of an unfortunate way where my crotch was put right in the face of the girls who had their heads already on their pillows. Kind of awkward... we... might have to move that ladder for the next time, not going to lie. I could hear one of the girls as she woke up, saw my bush, and went, “Ughh,” at it. I tried not to blush at the situation, reminding myself that more of this was to come if I was going to try and fit myself into this chaos.

I sat myself against the wall and pulled the backpack that I left here to my side. I opened it up and shifted through the insides. In addition to a bunch of small trinkets and oddities that I picked up here and there because I have this ugly habit of picking up unclaimed objects and keeping them for myself, there was a dozen volumes of manga, all of them were Boku No Hero Academia, some lock picks that I learned how to use pretty well last year, an empty diary that I probably was probably going to be too distracted to actually fill with anything —not to mention that I’m not good enough with words and my dyslexic handwriting is unreadable even to me— and exactly one article of clothing. A short white and orange sundress. It was my favorite “outfit” for when I absolutely had to wear clothing. It was what I was wearing in the mall when my satyr found me, and then those monsters, and then those demigods. It was so loose and short and thin that I might as well have not been wearing anything at all, and in the right light, which was basically any sort of light , you could see that I very clearly wasn’t wearing anything underneath it. I didn’t plan on ever wearing it for camp but... it was feeling kind of tempting, now.

But no. Things were going to get better. Things had already started to get better. I made a friend... I think. Or I almost made a friend. I don’t really want to speak for her or whatever but I thought that things had went pretty well with Amelia. As well as things had ever gone, at least.

The door to this room opened, one of the older girls came in, closed the door behind her, said, “Lights out, everyone,” and flipped the switch before fleetly making way for her own bunk and crashing into bed, like an acrobat or a diver. There was a kind of grace to the way a lot of us Hermes kids moved. Different than, say, the Apollo kids or —and especially— the Aphrodite kids. Kind of like foxes, I think. I liked foxes, same as I liked raccoons. Thieving little animals that one way or another I just kind of relate to for some silly reason or another.

I moved my backpack to the side and slipped under the covers. I kind of roll into a ball when I sleep, like an armadillo, elbows to my belly and knees to my chest.

Tomorrow... tomorrow was going to be fun. It was going to be something. It was going to be busy, yeah, but I wanted that. Maybe I’d even get to show off with the sword in a duel against someone. Maybe even against an Ares kid, or an Athena kid, though the idea of it was pretty intimidating...

I had to put in the work. It was time to stand up and go Plus Ultra on everyone. So to speak...

I closed my eyes. I barely slept the night before coming here, so I was exhausted enough to feel sleep coming on quickly and easily. There was still some chatter and whispering below me, but it was easy to tune out. Okay... tomorrow, here I come.


	4. Sword to Sword

We all woke up way too freaking early and prepped up and were, eventually, out the door. I was naturally the first one ready and out of the cabin. I was showered and ready for the events of the day while everyone was still dressing. It was one advantage of not having to get dressed, like, ever. There were others, but this was one of my favorites.

Just like I was hoping, the first thing we were doing today were sparring matches, one on one, weapon to weapon. I picked out my sword. I was partial to the single-edged kopis with the one-handed grip. It felt good in my hands. Perfect weighting. Gods, I love the feel of wielding celestial bronze. It was so empowering. This was one of those things that I’ve been waiting for since the end of last summer.

We were in crowds watching two or three duels happen at once. Once one was over, and there was a victor, Chiron would point to two demigods from these crowds, calling their names as he pointed to each one, and they would run to the dirt center and face off with. The victors were portioned off to the dining pavilion where we ate to rest up for a small time, presumably for later. Same with the losers, if they didn’t need immediate medical attention, at least. It was extremely informal, and the first time I’ve seen dueling approached like this at camp, but there was something exhilarating about it. Everything was so fast and in the moment, and nothing really stopped, even after you were finished.

I got the impression that everyone in this camp was about to duel someone else, which meant that I was probably going to be given the chance to show off in front of everyone, and in a different way than I normally did.

I hadn’t been pointed to, yet, and these three duels were each taking their sweet time in getting themselves over with. I decided to start searching for the crowd. Yeah, I was looking for one specific person, I’m not going to deny that.

And there she was, leaning sleepily against her spear with the butt planted firmly in the grass. I couldn’t say that she looked nervous, except for the fact that she looked much more awake than the average Hypnos kid, and that usually meant that they were pretty freaking nervous.

I started moving clockwise through the crowd, bumping elbows and ignoring the surprised noises that usually resulted when I was closer than five feet to someone. You know, how when I bumped into someone and they noticed _who_ they just bumped into. Yeah, it’s happened enough times that it was it’s own thing that I noticed at this point. It wasn’t a dense crowd, but they packed in pretty close to the front, to get the good view.

Eventually, I was by Amelia’s side. I tapped her on the shoulder and she almost jumped.

“Mm?” She went once she gathered herself. “Oh, Molly,” she said with a smile. “You’re here.”

“You didn’t see me across the ring?”

“I don’t notice much,” Amelia said. “So... ready?” She asked. “For all of that that sword-ing you said that you were pretty good at?”

“I hope I’m ready. I’ll try my best to win, but... gods, I just hope that they give me a fair fight. Like, someone that I actually stand a good chance at beating. But then again, if they give me somebody that I end up beating too easily, that would be a bad thing, too. There’s a sweet spot somewhere in there, I’m sure.”

“Well I hope you don’t get me, then. I’m about as easy a win as it gets here.”

“I’m sure if given the, um... the proper training and motivation, you would do just fine.”

“That’s sweet,” Amelia said, “but I’ve never held a weapon of any kind in my entire life. I just chose this one because it was the longest weapon, and I wanted to make sure that whoever I’m fighting stays that far away from me for as long as I can keep them. I might even fake fainting, I’m very good at doing that,” she said. “It will be great for everyone. I don’t have to fight and get hit with something made of metal, and whoever I fight gets an easy win. See, that’s just me being generous.”

I smiled. I patted her on the shoulder. “This will be good for you,” I said.

“Good like a hit to the head,” she muttered. “Yeah, that’s probably going to be exactly what happens.”

“You’ll like this, I promise,” I said. I actually didn’t know if she would. Most of us demigods had a kind of battle spirit to us that felt a lot like ADHD. I had a lot of it. The ADHD, I mean. The battle spirit was there for me, too. I was wired to fight in some way shape or form. I didn’t know if it was the same way for Hypnos kids. They didn’t seem to be wired in that same way from what I could tell. I guess they were about to find out if they were. I trusted Chiron to make the fights fair for them.

Whatever that meant.

Gods, I hope that didn’t sound condescending, or anything. Really, I do think that all demigods, from all heritages are able to accomplish great things with the skills that they have. And if one of them turned out to be an amazing sword and or spear fighter, then that would be incredible. It could be Amelia for all I knew.

Amelia, as if knowing what I was thinking and wanting to make the effort to try and prove me wrong, leaned too hard on her spear and almost fell. I caught her arm and helped straighten her out.

“Thanks,” Amelia said. “I meant to do that.”

We both laughed.

Then, Chiron called out, “Molly Kimura,” and I jumped so forcefully to the point I almost squealed. My turn. My time to duel. But with who?

I turned, said “Seeya after!” to Amelia, and jogged over to the middle. Eyes were on me, like always. As I ran to the vacant dirt circle, Chiron called out the next name. “Charlotte Czarnecki.”

I knew that name. Vaguely. It wasn’t until I saw who was moving in on me that I realized how.

She was an Ares kid.

Oh crap.

She was a year older than me, a head taller than me, with long, muscular limbs, and a long sword gripped in one hand. Her hair was shaved to the scalp on the sides of her head, and what remained was dyed blood red and falling down on the side of her face.

She looked like she would look very nice with some tattoos.

Oh gods, no, I’m attracted to someone again...

About that fair fight. I wasn’t sure if this was one of those. In fact, I’m pretty sure all the weight of this bout was on the side of Charlotte.

She had a fierce look to her eyes and a smile that suggested she was going to enjoy this.

The fight began immediately as we met. Celestial bronze clashed into each other with a force that almost disarmed me. When I say that, I want to emphasize that I’m surprised that the kopis didn’t fly out of my hands and impale some innocent bystander.

I was never going to be able to match her brute strength with a block. If she swung again like that at me and I tried to block it, I was either going to lose the sword or dislocate my shoulder. I was going to have to be more mobile and dodge around her swipes, a Hermes specialty. We didn’t like to meet things head on, we danced around them.

She grunted with each swing, and eventually, I was able to time my movements to the sound of her grunting. It gave me space to take my eyes off her —very momentarily— and dance around to her side.

She blocked everything I sent her way. She wasn’t merely a brute, she knew how to fight. She had practice. I know that it’s kind of easy to underestimate the Ares cabin because of, you know, the general way that they are, but when they start fighting, they really give you nine different shades of hades.

I was beginning to regret that fact that I had opted out of wearing any padding. That might have been a bit of an oversight, I’ll give you that. A few others did the same on account of mobility, but I think, for once in my life, I could have managed

“You’re a fast little naked thing,” Charlotte said. She was breathing kinda heavy, so at least I knew she was capable of getting tired. “I didn’t know that you had this kind of bite to you, nudie.”

I’ll be honest, I liked hearing that. It reminded me of what I was doing. I wanted to win, and I wanted to win so, so bad, but I was reminded that, even if I lost, I still might be able to impress the other half-bloods merely with how long I’ve lasted against someone like Charlotte. That would be enough.

It wasn’t ideal, but it might be what I had to walk away with.

I kept trying to rush past her defenses, but those defenses appeared to be freaking everywhere. She was slowing down at least, but also, so was I.

I swung one more time where I thought she was vulnerable, but she was quick to parry the strike. What’s worse, she spun, raising her foot and smacking it straight against my left cheek. I let out an undignified yelp as she laughed and, I think I heard at the moment but it could have just been my insecurities, a bunch of people from the crowd laughing, too.

“Look at that jiggle,” she teased.

My cheeks grew hot. The face ones, I mean. Gods, you know what I mean... whatever.

Anyways...

My *face* grew hot. Suddenly, it wasn’t enough to just last long enough, and do well enough. I had to win. I didn’t know how I was going to do that yet, but I had to.

I spun on my feet and brought myself low before spring up at her again. I launched an uppercut and, for the moment, both my feet were off the ground. I missed her, but I was still moving, and I was going to keep moving. I was on the ground, my knees bent. I struck at her legs, and to everybody’s surprise, including my own, I nicked her on the ankle. She grunted, pulled her foot back, and for a small window of time, she was on one feet.

I had to seize that window.

I put my foot out, my leg now catching that ankle. It took her off the ground and she fell hard on her back. I rose, standing over her, Kopis pointed down at her.

I... I won...

It hit me that I won all at once. The thrill, the unbelief, everything about it. I just couldn’t believe it.

And neither could Charlotte. She was looking up at me, mouth open in outrage, unsure of what to say now that this petite naked girl from Cabin 11, who was under five feet tall had beaten her, a daughter of Ares, in a one on one battle.

Then there was the crowd watching us. They didn’t make any noise for the first second after my victory, like they were all holding their breath to make sure that this was something that really happened. When it settled in that it did, there were a few exclamations of “ _What?_ ” and some smiling faces. They weren’t expecting any of this from me. I was smiling. I liked being seen winning, I’m not going to lie.

I looked to Chiron, who gave me the thumbs up and then gestured to the dining pavilion with the same hand.

I did it. I won. I was headed to the victor’s table and everything, taking long, confident strides, naked and proud of it.

Things were going about as well as I could have ever hoped for them.


	5. The Warrior

The other campers were scattered between tables, not really divided by their cabin, for once, which felt odd to me just to see. Like one of the gods might get petty and strike a table down or something. It was mostly by their cliques.

I looked back, and I could still see a split crowd watching the campers fight with each other in the distance. I wonder if they saw me win against Charlotte... I hope they did. I hope they were paying attention.

Instinctively, I didn’t join up with anybody. I went over to the Hermes and sat down at my corner, naked bum pressing against the bench, kind of sour from where Charlotte had kicked me.

 _Look at that jiggle_ , I thought, and I blushed again.

My butt didn’t... _jiggle_ did it? I was petite, yeah, but I also had a fair bit of, um... “cake,” for my height and build. So to speak...

Sweet Hades, I don’t want to talk about that. Forget I said anything about my— never mind. Not going to. Just going to keep moving on like that didn’t happen. Gods save me...

I had my hands on the table and I was playing with my thumbs for about a full minute before someone sat down across from me. I almost didn’t look up. I immediately assumed that it was just someone who had decided to sit there instead of anyone else. Then I remembered that that literally never happened around me unless there were absolutely no other seats available, and last I looked, there were a lot of other seats.

I looked up, and there was Charlotte. She must have got her ankle wrapped up and immediately charged over here.

She... didn’t look happy.

She leaned forward. “You embarrassed me,” she said.

I swallowed. “I... won,” I said in as calm a tone as I was able to speak in. I didn’t know whether I wanted to sound nervous or even a little annoyed, but I did my best to not sound like either of those things, and in the end, I sounded pretty stilted because of it.

Charlotte thinned her lips and looked away. “I... no... that’s not it. You know what I mean.”

I tried to think about what she mean. “I don’t think that I do know what you mean. Would you have preferred that I just... lost?”

“No. Of course not. It’s just that you’re...” she gestured at me. “You’re... you’re naked for Hades’s sake. You’re like a fighting clown. If you’re going to fight me and win, at least do it in the right way so I can lose with a bit of fricking victory.”

“Oh...” I said, my head turning down a bit. I started to absent-mindedly play with my hair, again. “But I’m a nudist.”

“You couldn’t say that to get out of wearing clothes out in the mortal world, could ya?” Charlotte asked. She shook her head. “Gods, everyone at my cabin is going to remember me for this one moment and only this one moment. I can’t believe I’ve practiced for all that time only for *you* to happen to me.”

In a quiet voice, I said, “I’m not going to apologize for being naked, Charlotte.”

She scoffed. “Weirdo.”

”You know the Spartans all you Ares kids admire so much used to fight and wrestle naked,” I pointed out.

”That was thousands of years ago. We’re different now. We wear fricking clothes.”

”I don’t,” I said.

”Obviously.” She rolled her eyes.

”Well get used to it, because I’m never going to put clothes on, and next time we fight, I’ll beat you again and I’ll still be naked.”

”I’m not going to let you win a second time.”

”You didn’t let me win, I beat you, you lost,” I said, raising my voice a bit. I felt all hot in my chest, and it felt really good to let it out. I kind of wanted to go so far as to start yelling, but I probably shouldn’t make that kind of a scene just when everything was starting to go well with me. I still had to stand my ground. I couldn’t just let Charlotte to step all over me like she so obviously wanted to.

Charlotte’s face turned as red as the dye in her hair. It was there and then gone, like a flash. She wasn’t composed but she was slightly more calm than it looked like she was going to be. Since she looked like she was going to explode before, it wasn’t saying all too much.

”Alright... that’s right. You beat me, but that’s not going to happen again. I’ll be waiting for the next time you and I can meet sword and sword, and I’ll put you to the ground for everyone to see.” She stood up and said some parting words to me.

”Seeya, Jiggles.”

She then turned and stormed off while I was trying and failing to come up with a good retort against being called “jiggles.” She was gone while I was half out of my seat, finger raised, mouth hanging open.

When she was out of earshot, I sat down. I watched as she sat with the other Ares kids who were looking over at me and laughing, but also laughing at her.

Maybe she was right. Maybe I did humiliate her. The more I looked at it, the more it seemed that way. But...

I sighed. I wasn’t going to feel bad about this. I refused to feel bad about winning like I wanted to, undressed like I wanted to be.

Hopefully this whole situation doesn’t turn into a whole big thing later on that ends up biting me in the jiggle.

I was so distracted that I barely noticed when someone else sat down, this time beside me.

I turned, and smiled. Amelia.

”I fell on the ground,” she said with a weak smile.

”Are you okay?” I asked.

She nodded and yawned. “I’m all fixed up. Just a few nicks. I’ll sleep it off.”

Another yawn, and then she leaned up against my shoulder. My heart thumping. Oh... she really didn’t mind me being naked, did she? Or was she just really, really tired? Still, she had her hands folding on my shoulder, and her head rested on those hands. Part of her forearm was brushed against my back.

It felt... really really nice. I liked the weight of it. I liked feeling her breathing.

”You won,” she said.

”I... well... yeah, I guess I did.”

”You did fantastic. I didn’t think you could move like that. It was really something to watch. It kept me awake the entire time.”

”Thanks. I’m sorry I missed your fight.”

“Bah. It wasn’t a fight. I swung and stabbed a few times, and then I was knocked down. I’d feel more bad if you did see it.” She looked over to the Ares table. “What was that all about?”

”She wasn’t too happy that I beat her.”

”Oh. That was her?”

”I thought you said that you were watching the fight?” I asked.

”I was, but I was mostly watching you. I’m sorry Molly, but you’re very distracting in motion.”

I snorted. “Okay. Fair.”

”Doesn’t make sense that she’d be upset though. I mean, she lost, right? Get over it, right?”

”It’s a bit more than that,” I said. “I don’t think she would have minded if all it was was that I beat her. It’s that I beat her while I was naked that got to her. She said it was embarrassing and that I wasn’t taking things seriously and that this was all she was going to be remembered by, now.”

”Mm. Huh...”

”Do you think that she’s in the right?”

”Mmmm,” Amelia went, and then tapped her fingers along my shoulder. “Nope. I don’t think so.”

”Really?”

”Yeah, really. I think she’s just looking for reasons to be mad at losing and to have an excuse for it. She lost and she happened to lose to a practicing nudist, big boo freaking hoo. You should feel good about yourself. From what I heard around me, a small Hermes kid beating an older, bigger Ares kid is pretty impressive. Like a big freaking deal or something.”

My smile widened. “Were the other kids really impressed?”

She yawned. “It sounded like they were.”

My heart fluttered a bit and my chest warmed. “Oh... that’s nice...” I said, trying to sound calm.

”That’s what you wanted, humm? You wanted to impress them with your skill with the sword. They saw that. Everyone knows you can fight now.” Another yawn. “You did it...”

”I did.”

”You...” she trailed off... she dozed off. She moved off of my shoulder and rested her head on the table.

I looked down on her and laughed through my nose. “Oh, Amelia...” I said, putting my hand very lightly on her back, and patting. The heavy hoodie she was wearing was soft, like pajamas. No wonder she was always wearing it. It kind of surprised me that she wasn’t somehow cooking inside all of that and under the sun. Might just be how I perceived clothes. Just completely uncomfortable all around.

She would be so much more comfortable naked...

But oh well.

I watched as more campers came from the dueling grounds and sat at their tables. I didn’t notice it while I was talking to Amelia and she was leaning on me, but there were a bunch more people at this table, too. The crowd watching the fights seemed quite diminished. It was going to be over soon. Then lunch, hopefully. I was famished.

Amelia started to snore. Loudly. The kids at my table looked over to her and they chuckled a bit. At her.

I smiled at some of them and shrugged.

”Must have been a long day,” one of the boys said.

”Heh. Yeah, sounds like it,” I said.

Did that just happen? Was I in on a joke? Instead of, you know, being the joke?

It might have just been one line and all, but that was so much more than I got almost all of last year.

I must have been pretty down bad for some basic human / half-blood interaction, but I dunno, it just felt like a good sign to me.

Things were looking up.


	6. A Few Reasons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning: Infertility
> 
> Edited to flow better

After lunch, I found Amelia sleeping on her side, on the bench at the Hypnos table. Again, snoring like a weed whacker. There were a few other of her siblings scattered around her, also out like lights, and the combined force of all of their snoring was like a choir of deviated septums.

I poked at her back and she stirred awake. “Oh... hey Molly,” she said. “I was just dreaming of you...”

D—dreaming? Of me?? What could she possibly mean by that? It wasn’t just the fact that I was in somebody’s dreams or anything, it was that I was in a child of Hypnos’s dream. That usually meant something. It could possibly mean a lot of things in the future.

I felt compelled to ask, but... not here. “Hey, Amelia, do you want to go hang by the lake with me for a bit?” I asked.

”whuh... okay. Yeah. Let’s go. I don’t swim, though.”

”No prob,” I said. “We don’t have to.”

She got up, I took her hand, and I led the way.

I sat down first. Not near enough to the water to dip my feet into it, but it was still a pretty view.

Amelia sat beside me. Close, beside me. If I moved at all, I felt the cold zipper of her hoodie pocket brush against my skin.

I was about to ask her my question, about the dream she had of me, but then she had one of her own.

”So I have to, umm... to ask,” Amelia said. “What makes you so hmm... so devoted to being naked? I mean, I’m not even sure it’s convenient the way that you approach it. It can’t be just for... comfort, right? There has to be some kind of bigger reasoning to it...”

”Oh... well, I guess it isn’t all that convenient, huh,” I said, chuckling. “But you know, it can be entirely for comfort, if I wanted it to be. For a lot of nudists it is, and for a lot of nudists, it’s a lot more convenient to be naked than it is to be clothed. There are a lot of reasons to be a nudist.”

”What are yours?”

”Comfort is a part of it, actually,” I laughed. “I mean, I’m pretty claustrophobic in clothes, so I’m always tugging at my collar and stuff, it makes me very sweaty, I just don’t know how you guys do it.”

”I guess we’re used to it,” Amelia said.

”Only reason I can think of why anyone would bother with clothes. Besides warmth in the winter, I guess.”

”Yeah, that would kind of necessitate some coverings, wouldn’t it?”

”Unfortunately,” I said. “Another reason is that being naked just makes me happy. It feels like I’m in my natural state. I’m connected with the world around me and all that hippy jazz. My mom’s a nudist, too, so I was taken to a bunch of nudist recreation centers to play around in when I was young, and even a nude beach, and it was sooo fun. I never wanted to leave while I was there.”

”Sounds fun,” Amelia said. “Not sure if I would be able to do that, but I really like it for you.”

”If I could go back to being that young...” I thought.

”Still, you’re kind of determined to stay naked even when, you know, it’s not that kind of setting,” Amelia said. “How did you come to want that?”

”It’s... I think it’s the opportunity, you know? Chiron didn’t really like it but he never forced me to wear clothes, and this was like, the first textile dominated space I’ve ever been in that allowed for me to be openly nudist. It was too good to give up. So... I’m naked now because I’m comfortable, I like to be naked, and because I’m allowed to be.”

”Makes sense...” Amelia said, thinking for a bit.

”What is it?” I asked.

”I mean... sorry if this is getting personal, but what about your periods...? Being naked this long... without any sort of break, I’m sure that eventually... you know, things would be noticeable.”

I felt some pinpricks on my face. I was always prepared to answer this question, but... it still brought her to a pretty hard time in her life. ”Oh, it’s... it’s okay to ask,” I said, even though I didn’t like the answer to the question. “I don’t... have... periods.”

”You don’t what?” Amelia asked. “How?”

”It’s a, uh... it’s a kind of Amenorrhea, but not like a typical case... like when it happens during pregnancy or whatever, it’s... long story short, I was born missing a few parts that would let me have my period or... or let me get pregnant... which I’m a lesbian, so I keep telling myself that it probably wasn’t going to happen in the first place, but... I don’t know, I kind of thought that...” I kind of thought that it would be nice if me and my future wife would have a kid together, and in those fantasies, it always made me kind of sad that I couldn’t be the one to carry that child. “Never mind. It’s not important. I just... it’s not always a pleasant thing to think of. Sorry if I’m being a downer.”

”Oh Molly I’m... I’m so sorry that I asked,” Amelia said, placing her hand gently on my knee and looking at me with her tired brown eyes.

”It’s okay,” I said, still feeling kind of crappy, like I normally did whenever I had to talk about this, or think about it for too long. “You were probably going to notice sooner or later that I don’t get my periods. It’s probably for the best that you know why, now.”

”Still... I’m sorry I brought it up to you,” she said.

”It’s not a problem. Really,” I said. “And... I don’t know, I think that has a little part to do with why I’m so focused on staying naked and being seen as a nudist. Not just because it makes it easier to be naked around the clock, but... I don’t know, to take my body back, I guess. Like, when I found out that I couldn’t have kids, I was already a nudist, but at that point in life, it felt like my body had betrayed me. Rejected me... so I kind of stopped being naked for a bit, and stopped looking in the mirror when I was naked, and I was just miserable for the longest amount of time. Until, I don’t know... over a month later where I had this crying session with my mom, and she hugged me and told me that... that I was okay, I guess. That I wasn’t broken. That I wasn’t missing pieces, and that I was a whole Molly Kimura, exactly as I was meant to come into the world... and I guess after the crying, that’s when it kind of clicked.” I shrugged, looking for the rest of the words to this story.

”I started getting naked again. But it was different now. When I saw myself in the mirror, it wasn’t just me seeing myself without any clothes, and it wasn’t me seeing a deformed body that betrayed me. Because it didn’t betray me. Because it wasn’t deformed or anything. It was me looking at me, a whole Molly Kimura. And I guess even before that whole thing, I just loved myself too much to cover her up.”

I let out a sigh. “There are those other, usual reasons I gave, of course. You know, stuff like comfort and lifestyle and even saving money, and in the end I’m not here and naked because of some bad news I received a bit ago. Mainly, it’s about me being passionate about my nudism, and loving that part of me and how I grew up in that setting. I almost let something that was out of my control ruin that for me. I don’t want to let it go for any other reason, now. I want to treat it like the precious thing I grew up believing that it is.”

”Molly...” Amelia said, and I had only just noticed that this entire time I was talking, her hand remained on my knee. “I’m... I’m glad that you have that for yourself. I wish I had something like that... I’m sorry if I brought up anything too sensitive or—”

”No, it’s okay...” I said, putting my hand on top of her hand. “I mean it. It’s nice to get it out there. I like being honest about myself, if I can.”

I looked into her eyes, and they were slightly wet. When I blinked, I noticed I had a few tears welling up, too. Gods I am such a sap, but...

This felt really nice. Her hand on my knee, my hand on her hand, our eyes locked...

The hopeless lesbian in me wanted to kiss her. It would be a nice setting and everything, but... of course we didn’t kiss.

We separated hands and stares out at the lake. Eventually, she started to doze off, falling asleep on her back, in the grass, arms splayed.

Snoring, again.

I smiled. I was really growing to like Amelia, and I was really starting to love Camp Half-Blood.

I’ll ask her about her dream when she wakes up.


	7. The Vision

I fell gently backwards and looked up at the sky. I was lying beside the soundly sleeping Amelia, the blades of grass were poking at my body all over, and the ground was uneven and lumpy, but... it was still very comfy. Even the sound of my friend’s snoring was kind of peaceful.

Yeah... I guess I could call her my friend, now.

I turned on my side and looked at her. I wondered if she was dreaming and, if she was, what was she dreaming about.

I wondered what her last dream was about. The one she had told me that I was in. If that dream meant anything. I’m not sure if I wanted a child of Hypnos to be dreaming about me. I guess it could mean good things, but any kind of prophecy in any way connected to a demigod tended to be... unpleasant. Violently unpleasant, usually.

I rolled back to my back, back to looking up at the sky. How long could Amelia sleep, anyways?

Probably hours. Probably days if nobody poked her awake and she didn’t realize she was hungry or thirsty. Maybe I should wake her... I didn’t want to be rude, but I was really curious about that dream. Not to mention that she should probably eventually stop sleeping on the grass and the dirt if she was going to want to keep that hoodie clean. Textiles tended to worry about things like that, I guess. It would show some understanding, one nudist to a textile, if I was able to help her like that, right?

How long has it even been, exactly? Barely a half hour since she dozed off? Maybe that was enough. Maybe I should just... gently nudge her, right?

I raised my hand, and it reached slightly over to her, but I couldn’t bring myself to do anything. She looked so peaceful, sleeping. She was usually sleeping, but she was _especially_ peaceful now. It was... very cute if I was going to be honest with myself and you guys.

My fingers curled away from her, and I placed my hand back at my side, fingers tapping on my naked hip. Inhaling. I was getting kind of antsy. I was hoping she would wake up on her own, but, oh well I guess.

Maybe in the next few minutes, right?

...

Well, no. That didn’t happen. She was still very much asleep. In even deeper sleep than minutes ago, if anything.

This was going to be a while. I was going to have to be back in the cabins by the time Amelia actually woke up, and then I’d have to try and go to sleep, myself, knowing that a daughter of Hypnos had a dream about me and not knowing what it was about.

If it was important, she would have told me, wouldn’t she?

Oh gods, why can’t I just say, “yeah, she would have,” and then try to enjoy the rest of my leisure time? Why did it have to be so easy to believe that something as important as a potential prophetic vision about me would somehow slip her mind to tell me about.

I should have asked about it earlier. This is my fault.

Breath in, breath out.

Just wait...

My hand was up again, hovering over Amelia.

This was worth the interruption, right?

Or... what if I just... made it look like an accident? Like something I had nothing to do with.

Yeah... that could work.

I picked up a few pebbles, little things, rubbed my thumb against them to clean off the dirt, and I turned over

Did I really want to do this...?

Of course I did.

I made sure nobody was looking, and I flicked the pebbles over to Amelia’s forehead. I had pretty good aim about these things, but a few were going to be caught in her hair. They bounced off her skin and back onto the grass. Her snores halted and started up again, and for a moment, I was worried that that wasn’t going to be enough, but soon, her eyes cracked open and she muttered a few incomprehensible things to herself as she stirred up, finishing with, “wh—whuh?”

I turned again to look at her as if I was just figuring out she was waking up. “Huh? What’s up?” I asked.

“Mm... hm... I don’t know... I just, hm... felt... something...”

“What do you mean?” I asked. I don’t think I’m a good actor or anything, but I was trying my darnedest here to seem as nonchalant as I could.

“I... don’t know...” Amelia said, sitting up and looking around, seemingly unaware when the pebbles slipped loose from her wavy brown hair and pelted off of her cozy hoodie. “How long was I out?” She asked.

“I’m not sure... I think maybe half an hour or something like that?” I said, making a bit of an educated guess. It was actually a little bit more than that. Noticeable to me, but I was paying way too much attention to each of the individual minutes as they passed us by. It felt more like hours while I was wondering about the dream that she had.

“Oh, well... I guess I have some more time to...” she started to lie down.

Frick! No, I had to say something...

“Wait, um, Amelia,” I said, placing my hand on her upper arm. “I actually have a question. While you’re still awake.”

“A question?” She asked.

“You mentioned earlier that you had a dream about me?” I said.

“Oh yeah, I did,” Amelia said. “Interesting dream.”

I nodded a few times.

“What?” Amelia asked.

My eyes widened and I quickly tried to tone down how flustered I was getting trying and failing to inch my way to the subject. It was probably best to be straightforward and honest about it.

“I was just wondering what that dream might have been about,” I said. “Kids of Hypnos kind of... when they dream, sometimes they see bits and pieces of prophecy, and prophecy is pretty important to demigods. It kind of happens... a lot. Like maybe too much. So like, if it seemed like anything important, could you maybe... tell me about it?”

“Oh... oh, I see. I got it,” She muttered, sitting back up and looking over to me. I took a similar kind of posture as she did, and we faced each other.

She closed her eyes. “Give me a second... I need to... try to remember...”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“I’m not good at remembering most of my dreams, but... I guess this one was pretty clear,” she said, moving her fingers through her hair, picking out a pebble, staring at it for a little bit —confused— and then tossing it away.

“We were in a city. I was there, too, I guess. Someone else was beside me, and she had a sword, but I didn’t get as good of a look at her. Only from behind, and things were blurry. A lot was happening, but you were ahead of me. I knew it was you because, well, you were naked, and you were charging forth, and I guess me and the other girl —the one with the sword— were following you. You had a sword, too, by the way. And there were... monsters. A few of them. And they were running at us. And after that... well, I woke up before we hit the monsters. The dream ended, and then it was like a different dream. I was in a waffle house and then polar bear broke in through the window... but I don’t think that’s as relevant to what you were asking, I guess.”

Well... I guess I was right. This was most definitely something. I mean, it could very much be something. I would bet on it, but... what does it mean? Why were we fighting monsters in a city? That hardly seemed discreet, but it could be accounted for by the mist... and would that mean I was naked in the mortal world? That didn’t sound right, either, though I certainly wouldn’t object to being allowed to.

And who was the other girl?

There were three of us, that Amelia remembered. Three was the general number of demigods that were sent to go on quests... could this mean... anything?

“Thank you, Amelia,” I said. “That was very... insightful.”

“Do you think you know what it might mean?”

“I’m not sure, but if it means anything, I guess we’ll find out about it, soon. I guess we just have to wait and be patient.”

Amelia nodded. “Can I... sleep now?” She asked.

I smiled. “Yeah girl. Go ahead. You want me to stick around to wake you up?”

She smiled back. “If you wouldn’t mind. I would hate to sleep past bedtime at the cabin.”

She got into a cozy position and started sleeping. I lay beside her the whole time, looking up at the sky as it changed colors, at the clouds as they drifted slowly in the sky.

My mind was... in a lot of different places. What she saw was almost certainly a quest, me, her, and another girl. Facing monsters and attacking them with the blade in the streets of some city.

Now that things were going so well in camp... this chance for me to head out on a quest felt like it might be coming too soon for me. I didn’t think I was ready. The way that my heart was pounding in my chest, I definitely wasn’t ready now. Not right this second. I had to... I had to be better.

I hoped that, when the quest came, if it came, it would give me a bit of time to train. Just enough so that, once I stepped out of these camp grounds, I had enough confidence in myself to not be walking away with my knees quaking under me. That’s all I needed, a little bit of time and motivation.

It was getting dark out. I shook Amelia on the shoulder, and I walked her over to her cabin, then I strolled back over to Cabin 11, where a few of the kids said “Hi!” and some said, “Congratulations!”

It felt like the best thing ever, and it was almost enough to distract me from all the swirling thoughts and possibilities brewing a storm in my head.

I listened to the dozen conversations under me while I sorted through my backpack again, this time keeping the diary and holding a pen over the paper as I relented to maybe write a bit about today. Or about the future, I don’t know.

I really wanted to write into this thing, now that I was finally doing things that were worth writing down.

Maybe I just had to write the first page, and not care if it was pretty or anything. I’d find my voice as I kept writing over the days.

I started with the first day. I kept it simple. I put down that I met Annabeth by the lake —the lakeside that was rapidly becoming one of my most favorite places— and that just a little talk with her gave me the confidence to try and put myself out there a bit.

Tripped on Amelia. Met Amelia. Made friends with Amelia.

Fought in a duel. Won it.

I was still on the first page. I might have been writing with too small a lettering.

I wrote down the details of Amelia’s dream, exactly as they were told to me —or at least how I remembered it— in case I needed to look back on it and, I don’t know, brainstorm. Prophecies were weird. They liked to be obtuse. If it was possible for them to hide a bit of something extra between the lines, or somewhere where you weren’t immediately looking, they always would. You’d think that, eventually, it would get predictable in that way, but throughout these thousands of years, prophecies always somehow managed to find ways to twist around heroes and demigods in some pretty ugly ways.

I couldn’t be me. I won’t let it happen to me. I’m not going to be a tragic Greek figure.

I’m going to come back to camp next year, and I was going to enjoy that year, too.

The door opened.

“Lights out!”

And the lights were out. I couldn’t see my journal in front of me, but I was pretty much done. I packed it away and I slipped under the covers.

Sleep did not come to me easily, but it came eventually.

That was when I started dreaming...


	8. The Goddess

I knew it was a dream. A lucid one. The kind of dreams that I’ve heard demigods talk about in passing. _Auspicious_ dreams, right?

I was ankle-deep in swirling fog. I couldn’t see the floor, and I could just barely make out my feet. Looking to my left and right, I couldn’t see anything but fog and the night sky, though on the horizon, the point where the two met kind of blurred together.

And all I could think was, “Oh crap, is _this_ happening to _me_ right _now?_ ”

I think there’s something that happens to demigods when they’re dragged into one of these important dreams. Like they’re mentally prepared for it or something. If this wasn’t the case, I’d probably be freaking out a bit more, I think, on account of feeling fairly conscious in a place I have no idea where is and one that looks nothing like anywhere on earth, at that.

It almost felt normal to me.

That’s just my theory about it, anyways. I was probably overthinking it or something.

“Hello?” I called out, and I heard my own voice thrown back at me, “ _Hello?_ ”

“Hel-lo?”

“ _Hel-lo?_ ”

Okay. This wasn’t going anywhere... maybe I was supposed to move? Where? I don’t know, I just took a few steps forward.

I couldn’t tell you what the floor felt like. It was smooth, I guess? Warm? It felt more like an absence of texture than it really felt like anything else. Kind of like solid air, and having heard a bit about how weird these dreams could be, that was probably exactly what it was.

I walked on for a bit. I didn’t know what I was trying to accomplish. I felt like a fool, and some Greek god or goddess was probably watching it play out like I was just the most clueless demigod to ever wander into their dream space.

I tried calling again. Nothing but echoes being shot back at me.

“Is anyone there? Why did you bring me here?”

“ _Is anyone there? Why did you bring me here?_ ”

“To see you for a bit,” a voice finally said behind me. I turned, and I was shocked by the figure I saw.

It was Aphrodite. I knew that immediately, just based off of gut instinct... and you know, because of how absurdly gay that I am.

So, as long as you can be attracted to Aphrodite, she appears as something like a shifting amalgamation of the most beautiful women that you’ve ever seen.

I was seeing a few different women at the same time, all of them I could recognize almost immediately where they seemed familiar to me. The first was this pretty teacher I had in sixth grade that I used to imagine being married to. Yeah, a little cringe, I know. Then there was this beautiful actress that I’ve seen in like, a bunch of Kdramas. Like, so many of them. If she’s starring in it, I’m watching, I’m just such a sap for her, I don’t know what to say, I just can’t control myself.

There were a few other faces seen when I looked at her, a bunch of major heartaches that I thought I forgot about up until now. It faced me with the fact that I have had a crap ton of crushes, and that when I do crush, I crush really freaking hard. Kind of embarrassing, not gonna lie.

I wonder if Aphrodite knew who she looked like to other people? I wonder if she knew how many people she looked like to me. She probably did, but I hope not.

I needed to reflect on myself a little bit...

Anyways, another big thing I didn’t really mention.

She was naked.

I don’t know why I was surprised or taken aback or anything by this. I’m a nudist, my mom is a nudist, I’m used to seeing naked bodies. But at the same time, I don’t know, um... _wow_.

Holy freaking _wow_ , was Aphrodite beautiful. And for brief glimpses, I was seeing some of my biggest, mostly textile crushes without their clothes on for the first time ever, and it was kind of overwhelming, all of it. It was definitely something that I kind of already imagined during my daydreams about wedded life with my myriad of brides, but to actually see it in front of me was something completely different than all that.

Why was this happening? Nobody else mentioned Aphrodite ever being naked besides in the ancient times when people had a more casual attitude about letting it all hang free. Then civilization moved on and people started wearing pants and the gods soon followed. Now that’s a Greek tragedy if there ever was one.

It couldn’t have been for my sake... could it have been?

And... gods, I was also staring for a long, long time. Was my mouth open?

It was open.

I shut my mouth.

“A—a—a—” I started sputtering out, my face growing hot as I realized how difficult it was to put the goddess’s name in my mouth when I was face to face with her in all of her Olympic glory. I knew what her name was. I swear to the gods. I just... you know...

Gay. So, so gay...

“Molly Kimura,” she said.

Oh my gods, she knew my name! My ability to form coherent sentences or thoughts continued to suffer. I was probably never going to recover it, but at least the pretty lady said my name with her lips.

Yeah, I can hear how pathetic I sound. I know, I know. This is just what I was going through at the time. It was ugly, guys, in a very, very pretty way.

“I... am...” I said.

Aphrodite smiled. Looking back on it, it was the kind of smile that someone would give to a pet when they did something quirky, like licking their butt. That didn’t matter to me at the time.

My cheeks got hot again.

“A—Aphrodite,” I finally said.

“I am,” she said with a nod.

Gods, this was embarrassing. I wish I could just... _function_. Just for a bit. But no, I had to be cringe even in my dreams.

“What— why am I here?” I asked.

“I wanted to see you?”

“Me?”

“Is there anyone else here?”

I didn’t reply beyond looking to the fog over my feet.

“I’ve been watching you,” Aphrodite said. “You’re a very... interesting girl... for a daughter of Hermes.”

“Um... thanks?”

“You’re welcome,” Aphrodite said. “You know, I like watching all of you demigods. You just live life so... dramatically. It’s better than television.”

I’m not sure if I liked where this was going...

“I saw you in the background of one of the episodes, last season,” Aphrodite said, and I tried not to ask about the terms ‘episode’ or ‘season’ being used in regard to the lives of the kids at Camp Half-Blood, “and I had to pause and zoom. A nudist, just so completely out in the open in an otherwise clothed world. It was _so_ amusing.”

“Oh...” I started. I didn’t know how to feel about that, either. I mean, getting on a god’s good side, for whatever reason, probably warranted a sigh of relief or something, but... being seen as amusing for what I saw as an integral part of who I am was... I don’t know, coming from a goddess like Aphrodite, it sounded very condescending. I was beginning to suspect that that was just the way that she usually talked to others, though.

“Anyways, I decided to follow you around whenever I saw that you were doing anything interesting. Last year was pretty slow, I have to say, but the first seasons of some great shows usually are. Now, things are speeding up, introducing new motivation, new characters, a rival, a potential love interest, and what seems to be a prophecy.”

I blinked. “Wait, what do you mean when you say potential love interest?”

She ignored me and continued on her own tangent. “I decided that I wanted to be a bit more of an active participant in this one. Kind of a sponsor, if you will. Oh! Or a _producer_.”

“I’m not following...” I said.

“Hmph. Then that means you probably weren’t listening. You should work on that,” Aphrodite said, crossing her arms and turning slightly from me. “But... I have a gift for you.”

“A... gift?”

She nodded. She held out her arm, her hand balled into a fist with the fingers facing down. It took me a bit to realize that the gift was in her hand, and I was supposed to put my hands underneath hers. I did so, and she dropped a ring in my hand, silver, with a small pink gem in embedded into it.

“In addition to one or two other perks, if you are ever in such a bind where you do not think you can possibly manage without the aid of a powerful goddess such as myself, you pull that gem from the ring and you throw it to the ground. Hard enough to break. But warning, it will only work once. To maintain dramatic tension, of course.”

“I... okay...” I said. “What else does it do?”

“Besides add some much needed pop to your ‘wardrobe’?” She said. “I think it’s best for you to find out yourself.”

“I...” I was about to say that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. That it sounded kind of sus to me, but... maybe I’m crazy, but I didn’t want to find out if Aphrodite could somehow manage to vaporize me in my dream. “Thank you...” I said.

“Excellent,” Aphrodite said. “One last thing?” She asked.

“What?”

“A picture,” Aphrodite said, and a selfie-stick materialized from nowhere into her hand. She put her arm around me and pulled my body close to her, skin to skin, and snapped the picture before I was even ready.

“I—” I began, and then Aphrodite handed me a polaroid of us, which really made me think back to whether or not that was a phone on the end of that selfie stick...

“This one’s for you,” She said.

I took it and looked down. Aphrodite looked gorgeous and completely camera-ready and like thirty beautiful women that I’ve seen before all at once, and I looked like someone poured a bucket of ice water over a deer in the headlights, just completely freaking out to be half-hugging the goddess of love.

“Thanks...?”

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Now, I think that concludes our meeting...”

“Wait, do you know anything about the quest or proph—”

She snapped her finger at me.

I woke up.


	9. The Next Day

I woke up a bit before I was supposed to, before almost everyone else did, and the ring was in my hand. I looked at it, and it looked the same as it did in that dream with Aphrodite.

I guess that meant it was really real.

Aphrodite really did call me into a dream. The goddess really was ‘watching me’ like a character in some kind of drama. She also suspected that I was about to have an adventure... and that in it, I was going to have a rival and a potential love interest...

Potential love interest probably meant Amelia... or so I just kind of immediately assumed... or I hoped. I don’t know, I just... she’s really nice and all. And pretty... and I really wouldn’t mind dating her... and she was in that vision she had of us on a quest...

I needed to get out of my head. This wasn’t important. Well, it kind of really was... but it wasn’t important yet. Right now, as much as it was currently in my head and seeming like the most important thing in the world.

The important thing was that Aphrodite had given me a ring in a dream, and now I have a ring in real life.

I considered slipping it on. I was really reluctant to do it, though. A gift from the gods, and a gift from Aphrodite... it had a lot of risk to it, I guess. Then again, she might be watching, and she might get offended, and offending a goddess was even riskier than a gift... sometimes. Gods were really random with when they decided to be dangerous.

I put the ring on my right ring finger. Nothing happened. Nothing that I noticed. I felt pretty much the same. Exactly the same, I guess. It looked really pretty, though. I guess I really wouldn’t mind wearing it as my one article of ‘clothing.’

I rested my head back on my pillow and stared up for the next few minutes, until the bell rang and I was expected to get ready.

I jumped out of bed and headed out. This was something that I could think about on my feet.

I was in the showers. Still wearing my ring. Still looking at it, I guess.

It really fascinated me. Not in a “my precious” kind of way, but in the way that a goddess —a really really pretty goddess— had just given it to me. As a gift... and it was supposed to do something.

I should really tell someone. Take this to Chiron or Dionysus to have it inspected or scanned for any traps or the like.

Gods I sure hope this things doesn’t explode. The fact that I was worried about this probably said a lot about the gods and a little bit about me.

“Hey!” Said a voice, but there were already a lot of my sisters talking to each other in the shower, so it didn’t occur to me that the “hey!” was directed at me until the word, “Molly!” was added.

And I slowly turned.

I knew who she was. Emery Sterling. She was seventeen, on either her fourth or fifth year in the camp, and one of the most present faces in the Hermes Cabin. She had dark skin and brown hair done in locs. She was very plump and, like a good deal of people, she was a good deal taller than I was. She was pretty, especially in her smile and her eyes. When the both of those features matched up, she was almost unapproachably beautiful. Her being my half-sibling on the godly side meant it wouldn’t ever occur to me to ever have a crush on her, but it was impossible not to notice how pretty she was.

And this, being the showers, meant we were both naked. All of us, were.

Well, I guess if anyone was going to talk to me on purpose, it was going to be when we were on equal footing.

Oh well, this was still more than usual. It still meant that maybe things were changing.

“That’s me,” I said, then shook my head. “I mean, yes?”

Emery smiled. “I saw your fight with Charlotte,” she said. “You were incredible. I didn’t think the match was even remotely fair, I though Chiron must have lost it. Too much galloping on uneven roads or something, but then you really showed up.”

“Th—thanks,” I said.

“I’m not sure if you saw it because my fight was after yours but I also won mine. It was against an Athena boy, and a really tough one, too. Christof.”

“Oh. I didn’t see, but I know him. He’s really good.”

“He was,” Emery said. “Athena kids are pretty observant. They know where to hit. I thought I was done for, but I pulled through.” Her smile grew proud. “Anyways, I was just thinking, and I had this idea, and I wanted to throw it by you.”

“By me?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Emery said. “I was just thinking that maybe in the future, you and I can team up,” she said. “You know, in the team sports, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“I—I— no. I wouldn’t mind that at all,” Molly said. “But, um... why do you want me?”

“I just told you,” Emery said, “you’re a really good swordswoman. And I also like to see Hermes kids succeed, especially if one of those Hermes kids is me,” Emery said with a grin. “Besides, you seem like a good kid. Kind of weird, but that’s most of us in this camp.”

”Th-thanks!” I said, and I meant it. I mean, I realized that I was weird, after all. The thing I wanted was for people to accept it.

And I think this might have finally been happening.

”No prob! I’ll be keeping an eye on you, and I’ll make sure you and I are side-by-side in the next game.”

She said goodbye, and she left the showers, leaving me smiling like a dope.

I had a teammate... I had a teammate!

Me and Amelia were jogging, along with the rest of the camp. We weren’t all the way in the back or anything, but it felt like I was moving at a turtle’s pace, all to accommodate Amelia, who wasn’t really a runner. Or an athlete. Then take into consideration how fast Hermes kids usually are and this was almost unbearable.

But still... I wanted to run beside her.

”She just... gave you that ring?” Amelia asked. She was mostly awake but also audibly tired from her jogging.

”Yeah. She didn’t even say what it does, besides that when I break the stone, I can call her for aid once. And also to ‘accessorize.’”

”Gods know you need that,” Amelia said.

”Amelia...”

”Have you ever considered tattoos? To mix... to mix things up?”

I have, actually, but my mom wouldn’t let me until I was an adult. “Let’s keep on subject,” I said.

”Right, right. Having a god on call must be interesting.”

”More like terrifying,” I said. “She said she’s watching me. For entertainment I think, like a character in a TV show. And I think she does that a lot, too, with other half-bloods.”

”Weird,” Amelia said.

”Really weird. I’m not even sure if I should be talking about it right now.”

”I’m sure the gods don’t hear or see everything.”

”History would suggest that they hear or see when it has something to do with them. You remember the story of Andromeda.”

”It was in that movie, right? With the guy from Avatar.”

”Close enough,” I said, then shook his head. “My mom told me that when someone sneezes, it’s because someone is talking about you, and when you sneeze twice in a row, it’s because they’re talking about you in a bad way.”

”Do you think that’s how the gods know?” Amelia asked. “They just start sneezing and are all like ‘uh oh, some mortal down there is talking smack. I better go turn them into a duck or something.’”

”A duck?”

”It was the first thing that came to my mind,” Amelia said. “Did anything else happen?”

“Besides that there was probably going to be a quest... not really,” I said, lying. There was no way I was going to bring up the fact that Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, might have implied that Amelia was going to be a ‘potential love interest’ of mine.

”I’m not sure how I feel about a quest...” Amelia said. “I would much rather stay at camp.”

”I’m sure you would,” I said. “I’m beginning to feel the same way. Things are finally starting to look alright.”

”And I love that for you,” Amelia said. “I’d hate for a dangerous quest to ruin that for us.”

”Us?” I asked, choking a bit, unsure what she meant.

”Yeah. My peace, and your happiness,” she said.

”Oh... right. Yeah, you’re right.” it was kind of obvious looking at it now. I guess I just had a bit too much Aphrodite on the mind. I needed to get back to looking at things through a normal lens I guess.

”Well... if it happens, it happens, I guess,” I said.

”I guess...” Amelia said.

”We might as well be prepared, right?”

”I don’t think there is anything I can do on Earth or Olympus that can prepare _me_ for a quest.”

“Nonsense, I think you have it in you.”

”I think you’re looking at a different person standing where I should be,” Amelia said.

”We’re running, and you’re doing a great job!” Albeit, still very slow to my standards.

”I’m exhausted...”

”That’s a good sign!” I said. “Come on, we’re almost at the end.”

”You’re insufferable,” Amelia said.

”Let’s go, one last sprint for the finish line!” I said, laughing, and I took off.

”I hate you!” Amelia called out. I looked behind me and she, indeed, sped up to try and catch up to me.

Not fast enough, but still...

I think she would do okay on a quest.


	10. Good At Things

Amelia collapsed as soon as the run was over, sleeping at her table, but since she was at a table with all the other Hypnos kids, there were more people there asleep than there were awake. I had to wonder how any of them ever found the time to eat, or really do anything else.

I think they did a lot of thinking in their sleep, though. When they weren’t dreaming of possible prophecies, I think they were usually aware enough to process the same kind of thoughts the rest of us have while we’re awake. I mean, I think so. It’s kind of hard to tell. A lot of them are pretty spacey. Most of them, actually. Every single one that I’ve ever seen, really.

But Amelia was soooo nice. And pretty. And accepting. And pretty.

I just really liked Amelia, okay? I also think that she’s really pretty. We’ve covered this. I’ll probably cover it again, so just keep all that in mind moving forward. I’m going to repeat myself, just get used to it.

A tray of food dropped to my side, and Emery sat beside me.

“Hey sis,” she said.

She... she called me sis. I’ve never been called sis before. I didn’t even know that actual blood-related siblings really did that.

“Emery, hi!” I said, maybe a bit too peppily. I told myself to tone it down moving forward.

“Have a nice run?” She asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. It was refreshing. You?”

“Loved it. Didn’t see you, though.”

“I must have been a lot further behind,” I said, “I was running with my friend. She’s, um...” I pointed over to the Hypnos table.

“Ah. Gotcha,” Emery said.

“She tried really hard,” I said.

“I bet,” Emery said.

“Speaking of,” Emery said. “Some of the counselors are working with Chiron to organize a foot race, kind of like the ones that they used to do in Ancient Greece, except cooperative... somehow. Might be in a week, might take longer, you know how some of these guys are, they can’t organize in a straight line for crap. Anyways, participation is going to be optional, but I was wondering if when the time came, you wanted to be my teammate.”

“I—I would be honored,” I said. “But are you sure you want me on your team? Like... you’ve barely seen me do much of anything besides swing a sword a little bit.”

“You swung that sword pretty well, if you ask me,” Emery said. “And besides, it’s more than that. You’ve got a lot of heart, and I want to make sure that the rest of the camp sees that.”

“Wow, um... thank you,” I said, not sure what else to say. Like... this was so, so sweet and I didn’t know what else I could possibly give her in return. Well, nothing came to mind except for one thing, I guess. “I’ll um... I’ll make sure that we win the race together, Emery. I promise,” I said. I almost swore on the River Styx, too, I swear to the gods I was that hyped. I thought better of it, thank goodness, because if I made that kind of promise and didn’t deliver...

Well, losing a race would be the least of my worries.

“Just so long as we do as well as we can, I don’t mind,” Emery said, patting me on the shoulder.

“Well yeah... I’ll do the best that I can.”

“Good,” Emery said. “I think that you really will.”

I nodded. “Yeah... you know, foot races in Ancient Greece were originally done completely naked.”

Emery laughed. “I’ll throw that fact by them, but I don’t think that they’re going to be too receptive to it.”

“Yeah... I’d have been surprised if they would be.”

“Still, it’s a fun fact they might like to know,” Emery said. “Just make sure you’re ready for this, okay?”

“I will be,” I said, more excited than I was nervous to have this new thing on the horizon.

After I left the table, I wasn’t content to just laze about the rest of the day. I was on an emotional high, I needed to keep moving.

I needed to keep training. I definitely needed it.

Amelia might need it, too. I woke her up and I told her, “Hey, let’s grab some training weapons and go to the beach.”

She said, “whuh?” but I was still able to drag her to the armory and then all the way over to the beach.

I had a wooden practice sword, and she had a training staff that she would train to use like it was a spear. I also let her use my own practice weapon, in case she turned out to be a better swordswoman than a ‘spearswoman.’

If I was being honest, she wasn’t really great at either of them, but that was what this practice was for.

I went through a few practice swings and I had her do the same while she had the sword. Her form was... nonexistent, but at least she could swing halfway nice? I guess?

I’m not all that great with the spear, myself, so training her on that front was going to be a bit slower, but I was at least a little competent. Enough to teach her where her feet should be.

That was another thing. The sand. Amelia positively hated walking in the sand. She cursed every third step, and almost fell with a few swings. I prayed to the gods that if she ever got into a fight, it would be on solid ground and not the sand, but today, we were on the sand because we needed the learning experience. I didn’t really like it all that much either, but it was good for your leg muscles. Not to mention that this whole thing was just one lesson in persistence that maybe we both needed.

The lesson could only go on for so long, I guess. Amelia fell backwards, landing on her rear, and dropped her spear. “That’s it... I’m done... I can’t move no more, and if... and if I do move anymore, I’m going to die tomorrow.”

Kind of dramatic, but yeah, I was tired, too. I looked down on her and said. “We can be done for today,” I said.

“Can we wait to walk back to the cabins?” She asked, “and just rest here for a bit?”

“I... yeah. I guess we can,” I said, and then reluctantly sat myself down onto the beach.

This was part of the reason why I wasn’t so big a fan of the beach myself. The sand. It was inevitable that I was going to get some on me, and some trapped into a few very uncomfortable places, but I just told myself that I could bear the itchiness for long enough to sneak in a quick shower when I got back to the cabins.

Ugh... I hated the feeling already. I was already chafing and I was barely moving. Just... yuck with it all.

“I don’t think I’m going to make any progress,” Amelia said.

“Progress doesn’t happen quickly.”

“I’m not wired for this sort of thing,” Amelia said. “Slicing. Stabbing. You know... I don’t think it’s me.”

“If your dream comes true, it would be a good idea if that can become at least a little bit your thing,” I said.

“Yeah... I know... I can just hope it doesn’t happen, I guess.”

I didn’t know if I could do that. As nervous as the mere idea of being sent out with only two others more or less my own age on a quest made me, I really wanted it to happen. I felt like it was something I needed to happen. To grow up and go on, I guess.

But... I didn’t like the way that Amelia looked like she genuinely didn’t want the quest to happen. I... I wanted her beside me when we headed out, but... I would leave her behind if that was something that she wanted.

Maybe I should just take her mind off of it, for a little bit. I didn’t want her losing any sleep over this... if that was at all possible.

“Hey Amelia,” I said, “I was just wondering... what kind of things did you like doing back at home? Besides sleeping, I mean?”

She snickered. “Not going to lie. Sleeping was a bit of a highlight, but... I don’t know, I guess I liked to read and watch TV and listen to music... usually to the point where it put me to sleep, but, you know,” she shrugged. “And what about you? Did you do anything at home besides be naked?”

“I did a lot,” I said.

“Like go to malls?”

“Yeah. Like that.” I stuck my tongue out at her. “I read manga. Go on walks. Exercise.”

“Ugh. Exercise,” Amelia said, rolling her eyes. “I can’t believe that anyone actually enjoys that. I feel like I’m dying.”

“You did a good job,” I said.

“You’re lying.”

“You tried really hard,” I said, using the same words I used to describe her running to Emery.

“I’m not even sure if I did that,” Amelia said. She sunk her hands into the sand, picked it up and let it slip through her fingers. “I don’t know... I want to be better at it. I really do. I just kind of... want to be good at something. Anything.” She was looking out to the water, and I guess trying not to look into my eyes.

“Amelia?” I asked. “Is um... are you... okay?”

“I’m fine,” Amelia said, making a snorting noise with her nose. “It’s nothing, I just,” she shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t really feel like I’m good at a lot of things. It’s like I just kind of... float around and take up space.”

“Amelia... that’s not it at all,” I said. I almost reached my hand out to her but... I don’t know what stopped me. I guess I’m just not really good at making the first move in anything.

“It’s okay, Molly. You don’t have to comfort me about it. I’m okay. I’m used to it.”

“You don’t have to be ‘used to’ that. It’s... you’re...”

“If you want to prove me wrong,” Amelia said, “I want you to name one thing that you know that I’m good at.”

I quickly searched through my head, and I was ashamed to come up mostly empty. Still, I opened my mouth and I started talking, hoping I could find whatever I needed to say, “I... we’re just getting to know each other, Amelia,” I said. “I’m sure there’s a lot that you’re great at, but... but I just need you to know that before we met—”

“Before you tripped over me,” She said.

“Yeah, before that,” I said, “I was kind of at a low. Not a lot of the other campers talked to me, and I was feeling lonely and... well, you didn’t make me feel like an outcast or anything, and it seemed like you actually wanted to hang out with the weirdo nudist. It meant a lot and... I don’t know, I just think you’re a really cool person.”

She finally looked over to me. Her eyes were a little wet, but it didn’t look like she was about to start crying or anything. “Molly...” she said, pausing, not saying anything until she shook her head and said, “thank you Molly. You’re... you’re great. I mean that.”

“You are, too,” I said, and finally, I put my hand on her shoulder.

“Just kiss already!” Interrupted a voice from behind us. We both jumped, turned, and looked. Standing there, hand on her hip looking down at us like we were some fascinating kind of zoo animal, was Charlotte.

Quickly, I moved my hand from her shoulder and tried not to blush. “What do you want, Charlotte?” I asked.

“I’m just on a run,” Charlotte said. “Ran into you two by accident. I hope you’re keeping everything here above the belt —figure of speech, you might not understand it, Molly. I would hate to have to report any... inappropriate behavior to Chiron, or anything.”

“Shut up, Charlotte,” Amelia said.

“Tough words. Is she sleep talking?” She asked me.

“Just... go, please,” I said.

“I’m just talking,” Charlotte said, opening her arms in a ‘friendly’ gesture.

“So were we,” I said.

“Looked kind of romantic to me,” Charlotte said.

“We’re just friends, Charlotte. Now run off and go punch a tree or something,” Amelia said.

Look, I know that this is a kind of awkward situation, but it did kind of sting to hear the words ‘just a friend’ come out of Amelia’s mouth. It didn’t hurt a lot, but it was a little barb at my pride, and I noticed it.

“Awful lot of attitude for one of you narcoleptics,” Charlotte said. “But fine, I have better things to do. You two have fun. But not too much fun.” She blew a kiss and laughed as she jogged away.

“What a jerk...” Amelia said.

“Sorry about that,” I said.

“About what?”

“Well... she’s just making fun of you because you’re with me,” I said.

“She would be making fun of me, regardless. She obviously doesn’t respect the Hypnos Cabin. I don’t think a lot of people do.”

“I do.”

“You’re special,” Amelia said, and I didn’t know how to take it, so I assumed that it was a compliment.

“Besides, she’s just upset that you kicked her tush in that duel. She’s jealous of your mad skills.”

I laughed. “Never say ‘mad skills’ again ever, please.”

“I realized that I shouldn’t halfway through saying it but I still went on with it,” Amelia said. “If she comes bothering us again, I give you permission to whack her.”

“I’ll take you up on that offer, but only if you phrase it just like that.”

“Whack her, Molly,” she said. We laughed, she snorted.

We talked for a bit more after that about little things, then we realized the time. We returned the practice weapons to the armory and then I asked her if she would like me to walk her to her cabin again, and then she said that she would love that.

The walk was pleasant, from a conversational point of view, but the sand was rubbing me entirely the wrong way. I practically sprinted back to Cabin 11 when I was finished dropping Amelia off, just to get into the shower and get all that sand off of me. I breathed out a sigh of relief to finally be clean, then walked straight to my bunk and lied down.

I looked at my hand. Looks like I wore the ring the entire day and barely noticed it. I removed it and slipped it into my backpack right before the lights were flipped off.

I don’t know if it was a good luck charm or anything, but I made a note that maybe I could keep on wearing that ring. Just in case that it was.


	11. Bullseye

I left the cabin with my ‘good luck charm’ on my finger and went along to find Amelia. We took up side by side during archery practice. I helped her draw her bowstring back, and set her on a level where the arrow would at least meet its target. She didn’t quite get a bullseye yet, but she was still shooting a bow and arrow, which was more than she was used to.

I wasn’t all that good at archery though, to be honest. I was entirely focused on melee combat and footwork, but since this practice was mandatory, I had to make some kind of effort, and I took some comfort with the fact that, on the same field as the Apollo kids, everybody looked bad, not just me.

I told that to Amelia, and she said, “Well, it’s not like I was going to be good at this, anyways.”

I frowned, remembering yesterday’s conversation with her.

“There’s a pretty good chance that you could end up being better than me,” I said. “There’s not a lot to catch up to in that case. I think you could really be good at this with a bit of practice.”

“I... doubt it,” Amelia said.

I looked at her, and I thought that part of the problem might be that she didn’t want to risk trying anything for long enough to get good at them. I didn’t want to risk her by voicing that, though. Maybe later, after a few more weeks getting to know each other.

Maybe out on our quest, but that was probably going to be too late.

“Molly,” she said.

“Yeah?”

“I had another dream,” she said. “It was the same kind of dream. In the same place. You and me and the other girl... and this time I was able to recognize the other girl.”

I blinked. “What? Really?” I asked. I was excited. Happy, even, but then I looked at Amelia’s face and I realized that she didn’t share that same excitement. I tried to tell myself that it was probably because she didn’t want to go on this quest in the first place, but... there was still something about it that didn’t bound entirely well to me. “Who was it?” I asked in a more careful tone.

“It was Charlotte,” she said.

“Oh... oh...” I said. “Well... that’s... unexpected... and not really ideal...”

“Yeah. I thought that was how you were going to take it,” she said. “One more reason to hope that whatever these dreams are, they don’t really count for anything. They could just be recurring kinds of dreams, I mean I only really met Charlotte yesterday, and you know what they say about dreams, about how a lot of the faces that you see in the day just kind of show up in them at random. It could just be that.”

“Yeah... I guess it could be something like that...” I said. I didn’t think it was, but it was clear that there was a big part of Amelia who wanted it to be that way, and I didn’t want to poke at that. I knocked an arrow and I shot it at my target. With a heavy *thunk* three circles away from the center. I thought it was pretty good, but when Chiron had his eyes going from me to where the arrow landed, nodding, I wasn’t so sure.

It wasn’t even that I was intimidated by him... which I totally was, but not for any real reason besides the fact that it looked like he knew what he was doing, and it was kind of off putting to not have that same kind of feeling around people like that.

Crap, I wonder if that’s what Amelia feels around the other campers. Is it bad to make that association right away? It probably was...

But anyways, Chiron was a good teacher, especially in comparison to Dionysus, who just kind of put in the time required and the bare minimum effort while he stumbled lazily through the day, waiting for when he could kick back, play some pinochle, and lament the fact that he was currently unable to get liquored up.

I wonder what it was like to be a god with his ‘purpose’ or whatever taken away from him. I wonder what it would be like when he finally got it back. Maybe it’s just the weird way that my mind worked, but I imagined that it might be something kind of like whenever I was forced to wear clothes for long periods of time. It probably wasn’t like that, though. He was a god and I was just someone who liked being naked. Then again, if I ever became such a hero that the Olympians would offer me godhood for that, I would definitely consider it.

Molly Kimura... the Greek goddess of nudism...

Now that was a nice thought.

Thoughts... what was I thinking of? I definitely started somewhere. How did I get here?

“Molly?” Amelia said.

“Hm?”

“I’ve been trying to get your attention,” Amelia said. “You kind of... zoned out there for a little bit.”

“Oh...”

“Is it because of Charlotte? And the quest?”

“I don’t know. Maybe,” I said. “My mind is just kind of racing. It’s... something we’re going to have to deal with. Maybe. If your vision is true.”

“If it is,” Amelia started, “do you think maybe we can... talk to her?” She asked.

I thought about it. I didn’t really like the thought. It wasn’t something that I would have done if I was given any other choice, but... I might have to.

“Maybe you can... try to relate to her as a... warrior or something,” Amelia suggested.

“I’m not sure if that would work. I beat her in a fair fight, and she said that I embarrassed her,” I said.

“Yeah, I guess she isn’t the most reasonable person... and she already doesn’t like you,” Amelia said. “But you were fighting side by side with her in my dream, though. You seemed to get along with her well enough, then.”

“Well, I can’t imagine arguing while our lives are in danger, threatened by monsters,” I said. “I mean, I’ve never been in that kind of situation, but I would think that that’s not something that two people normally do.”

Amelia raised her bow, with an arrow and, while looking very unsure of herself, pulled the bowstring back, aiming the arrow. “I wonder... what I’m doing... there. In the scene in my dream... you know... besides watching.” She let go of the bowstring, letting the arrow fly, gasping and shaking her hand as it was whipped with the string, cursing and not seeing that her arrow hit the target dead center.

“Maybe you were doing that,” I said, pointing it out.

“That was an accident,” Amelia said.

“It’s a bullseye.”

“It freaking hurt.”

“Then move your hand after you shoot,” I said.

“I did. I tried,” she said.

“Did you aim for that?” I asked.

“I... yes. I tried, but—”

“Maybe try it again,” I suggested, aiming and firing off my own arrow and hitting two above the bullseye.

“I don’t know... my hand...”

“You won’t hurt your hand again,” I said.

“Even if I don’t, my hand hurts now,” Amelia said.

Without thinking, I said, “Well what do you want? For me to kiss it and make it better?”

She thinned her eyes at me, considered something, and then she said, “Yes. I want that.”

“W—what?” I asked.

She held out her hand, which was marked red, even over her archer’s glove. “Kiss it, Molly. Make it better.”

I blushed furiously. I don’t know why the reaction was so strong to something as simple as kissing a booboo, but I couldn’t get any control over it. It shouldn’t be such a big deal, and I know that now, but...

But when it was happening, I just had to get to the other side of this thing. I leaned in quickly and pecked her hand where it hurt.

“Is that it?” Amelia said. “I was expecting a bit more.”

“Later,” I snapped. “I mean— no, not later. I— just— just shoot something, okay?”

Amelia smiled. It might have just been her tired eyes, but there was a heavy amount of self satisfaction in the look she was giving me.

With the same uncertainty as last time,she drew back, and she released.

It wasn’t a bullseye, but it was one away from being one. Not only that, but she had also managed not to snap the bowstring against her hand.

She looked over to me and I was smiling.

“Shut up,” she said.

“You’re pretty good at that, you know,” I said.

“I’ve had a few days to try and learn,” she said.

“Maybe it’s talent,” I said.

“Talent is just something people use as an excuse for being lucky enough times at the start to learn how to actually do something along the way,” Amelia said.

“That means you can keep getting lucky and you might actually learn,” I said.

“Or I might run out of luck and I never hit anything ever again after today.”

“Do you want to prove me wrong?” I asked, shooting another arrow myself and hitting someplace right in between the middle and the edge.

“I want to be done with this. I’m going to pull my shoulder or something.”

“But you’re here, and you have to train, so you might as well keep firing. Who knows, Charlotte might even see you or something and she might be impressed. It would help us a lot for when we have to quest.”

“I don’t want to impress her. I don’t like her and I don’t want her to like me,” Amelia said.

“I get that,” I said, “she’s a jerk, but we have to be prepared for if your dream is actually a vision. Besides, you look really cool when you shoot those arrows, or whatever you call it. Like an Amazon.”

“I’m three feet shorter than any Amazon ever.”

Since Amelia was noticeably taller than I was, I didn’t want to know what that made me.

“I think Amazons were often naked, too,” I said.

“I hope you’re not suggesting what you’re sounding like you’re suggesting,” Amelia said.

“N— no. I’m merely putting out something that may or may not be historically relevant to the conversation at hand.”

Amelia rolled her eyes.

“But... if you ever wanted to try it out...” I said. “It’s pretty fun once you get started. It starts to feel very natural in no time at all, promise.”

“I think I’ll pass, actually,” Amelia said. “You can do you, and I love that for you, but I’m going to just not.”

I nodded. “Fair. Fair,” I said, “now maybe we should stop talking and you should start getting back to being all Hawkeye on that target.”

“You know what? I’m going to start missing just to spite you,” Amelia said.

But she didn’t. She wasn’t perfect, and she was still treating the bow like it was a wild animal that might bite her if she approached it the wrong way, but she still managed to pretty consistently hit close to the center of the target. I think a few others noticed, too. Not to be condescending or generalizing or whatever, but Hypnos kids... rarely ever really showed all that much aptitude to combat, so the fact that Amelia was a halfway decent archer was something pretty noteworthy.

And when practice was over, Amelia was trying to hide it, but she was smiling a little bit. She was proud. I was proud of her, too.

“I think I know what you’re going to be doing on our quest, Amelia,” I said.

She pushed me on the shoulder. “Shut up. That’s not going to work against real, moving monsters,” she said, but she smiled while she said it.

We split for lunch, but I looked over to her, where she sat, and she was talking to a few of her half siblings. She wasn’t really making eye contact, and it looked like she was trying to play off whatever they were talking about like it was no big deal, but... they looked proud of her, too.

I looked over to the Ares table, and I saw Charlotte. She was sitting on the edge, in the corner, closed off like I was just a few days ago. Her focus was solely on her food, and she didn’t speak to any of her half siblings around her. None of them talked to her, either.

I wonder if that was my fault? The Ares kids were all kind of... Ares kids, so it probably wasn’t her personality that drove them away. I wonder if it was because she was defeated in a duel by some naked girl.

I had to talk with her. I wasn’t going to apologize. I was going to try and level with her, and maybe tell her about Amelia’s dream.

I was going to do it... later. As late in the day as I can possibly pull off.

But if I was going to have to go on an adventure with Charlotte, I don’t want it to be in the state we currently are in.

The idea of being friends with her was foreign, but...

I don’t know. Things get weird around here. I would be surprised if that was the way things went, but not too much.


	12. The Big House

I put off my ‘responsibility’ of talking to Charlotte for a bit. Amelia was busy talking to some of her half siblings, and I couldn’t find Emery to talk about that foot race. She might have actually been working on it with a few of the other campers.

I was wondering if there was something else I should be doing maybe, besides just training. Training was going to be important and everything, but there was something in the back of my mind that was telling me that there was more to do.

I looked at my ring for a bit. My good luck charm. It was rather pretty, but of course a gift from the goddess of love was going to be beautiful to look at.

Wait...

Oh crap...

I think I forgot about something pretty major...

All this time, from Amelia’s visions, to my dream with Aphrodite in it, to my training for a quest that I was certain at this point was going to happen, I completely forgot to do one thing I probably should have done way at the start. I should have told Chiron, or maybe even Dionysus about this.

I didn’t hesitate. Though it might be kind of embarrassing to tell either of them that I’ve forgotten to tell them this, and for so long, it would be better to just have it out now and have them know about what might end up happening in the near future than to just keep it an unknown for longer.

I swear to gods I wasn’t keeping this a secret on purpose...

I rushed over to the Big House and I knocked on the door.

“Come in,” said a voice that most certainly belonged to Chiron rather than Dionysus, and I walked in to see Chiron and Dionysus sitting at the table and playing pinochle, a card games I couldn’t understand the rules of if I tried and that I certainly never would have the patience to ever learn, but they loved it so hey, whatever floated their trireme.

“Ah, the naked girl,” Dionysus said, taking his eyes off his cards for just over a second to acknowledge me. “Mary, right?”

“Molly, mister Dionysus,” I said quickly. In spite of what a bunch of other campers did, I couldn’t bring myself to call him mister D. Everyone pretty much got away with it but I don’t know, it felt risky of me to call a god that.”

He just hummed at my correction.

“Why did you come here, Molly?” Chiron asked.

“I...” I don’t know why I froze, but I remembered why I stayed frozen. Amelia. I should have told her I was doing this before I ran over her to put some spotlight on her. Spotlight that I was pretty sure that she didn’t want, for a quest that she’s went on the record of telling me that she didn’t want to go on. Now I was here to tell the two heads of camp about it and I didn’t even consult with her, I’m so inconsiderate.

“Are you going to say something Marie, or are you going to just stand there?” Dionysus asked.

“I— uh, yeah, I came here to...” was I really going to lie now to one god about what another god told me in a dream? What if they talked? What if they got together for Olympian 4th of July over some hot dogs or something and Dionysus was talking to Aphrodite and they were all like, “Hey, you know that naked girl? Marie? No, Molly. I was in her dream once, told her about her quest. What? She didn’t tell me about that? I ought to smite her. Yeah, me too, let’s do it together, pal.”

Were Aphrodite and Dionysus pals?

Okay, I breathed in, and breathed out. I could... I could just explain things to Amelia real quick. Or try to leave her out of it. I mean, I had enough to tell them with Aphrodite.

“I had a dream... and Aphrodite visited me in it,” I finally said.

“Oh. Then sit, please, and tell me about it,” Chiron said, gesturing to one of the chairs at the big table. I sat beside Dionysus so I could talk across the table to Chiron.

“She, um... she visited me and told me she was watching me, and...” I thought for a bit how to phrase the next part, “now I know that I might end up going on a quest with to other Half Bloods.”

“That’s not good,” Dionysus said, clucking his tongue but still holding onto his cards after Chiron had folded them down.

“What?”

“Listen, naked Marie,” I didn’t bother correcting him this time, “take it from another god, when one of us says that they’re interested in, or paying attention to a demigod, that is a good sign to start running, because nothing good is going to happen after that.”

I swallowed. That’s an... unpleasant thought, but not a new one. Still... a distracting thought came to my head. Dionysus is a Greek god, he would have been able to walk the world naked and nobody would bat an eye at that, and in modern times he’s wearing a leopard print shirt. Something about that felt off to me, but oh well. I guess time moved on, even if it was in the wrong direction sometimes...

I was getting very, very distracted.

“Don’t tell her that, Dionysus,” Chiron said. “That helps nobody.”

“I’m just being honest to the poor girl. First she can’t afford any pants to cover her sunless bum, and now her entire life is going to be turned upside down by some out of touch with reality goddess.”

I didn’t want to say anything but Dionysus always seemed just as much out of touch with reality as any other god I’ve seen, which at the moment, tallied up to two. I also didn’t say anything at the accusation that I had a sunless bum. I work very hard in the sun, I’m sorry I’m not as Mediterranean as Dionysus expected of me or something.

Best not to dwell on that.

“Did she say anything else? Do you know what the quest is for, or who it is with?” Chiron asked. His voice was calm, and listening to it made me feel a lot more calm.

“She, um... she didn’t say with who, or for what,” I said, which was technically the truth. Amelia was the one who told me. “But she gave me this ring as her favor.” I started to pull off the ring to hand it over to him. Chiron took it and inspected it. “She said that if I crush the jewel, she’ll come to my aid. She also said that it does something else. I’ve been thinking that it was a good luck charm, because good things keep happening to me, since I started wearing it.”

“Gifts from gods to mortals are never good luck charms, Marie,” Dionysus said. “It always comes at a cost. Then again, it’s Aphrodite we’re speaking about, so she might just be the cost, am I right, Chiron?”

Chiron didn’t answer him. “I don’t think it would be a good luck charm...” he handed it to Dionysus. “Do you know anything about this?”

“What do I look like, Hephaestus? Don’t answer that.” He squeezed his hand over the ring, and he nodded. “I dunno exactly what this is, but the Mist is strong in this little trinket. Smells like Aphrodite, too...” He threw the ring over to me, and I yelped as I caught it, afraid that I might miss and the ring would fall and the rock would break and I would have wasted my summons to bring Aphrodite in the middle of an interrupted game of pinochle. “Put it on, I want to see something.”

“O—okay...” I said, slipping the ring on.

“There it is,” Dionysus said. “I wasn’t looking for it, before, but now that I am, I know what that ring is.”

“What?” I asked.

“It uses the Mist to make it seem like you’re wearing clothes to mortal eyes,” he said. “You’re wearing capris and red tee shirt right now. Kind of bland, but it’s more than you walked in here with.”

I looked at the ring. I... it... this ring... it would let me be naked all the time, even in the real world... I would never have to wear clothes again, except for warmth... it was a dream come true...

“Wow... I... this is incredible,” I said, and suddenly, it made sense to me why I was still naked in the middle of a city while monsters were attacking.

“I know what you’re thinking but still... it’s a bit more... customary to charge into battle with at least a little more coverage,” Chiron said.

“I can think of at least three hundred dudes stewing in some afterlife out there that would prove you wrong,” Dionysus said, picking at his teeth.

Chiron shot him a look and then returned his eyes to me. “Regardless, Molly, I do not know what we would possibly send anyone on a quest for. I believe what you’re telling me, and I get the feeling that we’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the near future, but there’s little I can tell you now besides to train, and to keep your ear out for anything else along these lines.”

”And maybe work harder on tanning,” Dionysus suggested.

”I’ll have you here again for further discussion,” Chiron said. “Is there anything else that you need to tell me?”

I paused. There were missing pieces... but I told myself that I could tell them after I talked to Amelia about it. Even the part about... ugh, Charlotte.

”Nothing,” I said, shaking my head.

”Are you sure?”

”I’ll... I’ll tell you when there’s more. Right away,” I said.

”Good. Then if you may, can you leave Dionysus and I to discuss this further?”

”And to finish our game?”

I nodded, standing up. “Bye. I’ll see you both, um... later.”

I left the Big House and one I was outside I stared at my ring. It was too good to be true... it was all the freedom that I ever wanted, finally. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that this will change my life forever. I could have cried if so much else wasn’t going on.

So much else left to do.

I breathed in. I probably should really talk to Charlotte now, shouldn’t I?


	13. Talking Things Out

Okay, so...

I really didn’t want to do this.

I’m not like, a wimp or anything, but I just kind of have this thing about walking up to people who I know don’t like me and... talking to them. Like, it’s something that I actively try to avoid, as I’m sure you do, too, don’t lie to me. It’s just common sense to avoid situations like this. It’s self care, and I care a whole lot about myself.

But then that little thing called prophecy had to step in. I keep telling myself that I haven’t talked to the Oracle yet, that she was away from the camp for a bit, that no prophecy was official, or anything.

Though I guess now that I said something to Chiron and Dionysus, they would try and get in contact with the oracle so she could come back and give me an actual prophecy, if there was even one to give.

But here we are, and from all that I know, if there will be a quest that I am going to be a part of —and at least one god in the pantheon thinks that that’s the case. Maybe even two, now, with Dionysus. Or three? Does Chiron count as a god? Two and a half? Whatever— chances are that I am going to be going on that quest with Charlotte, whether I liked it or not. Going off of that, I should probably, at the very least, talk to her. Telling her about the dream itself might also be a good idea, I guess.

Or! Or... I could go over and tell Amelia that I’ve spilled a few of the beans to Chiron and Dionysus, and that it was up to her to decide what else she wanted to tell to them, after this. Another conversation, but with someone that she actually liked, about something that she knew how to talk about.

Yeah... I know, I know... I should probably just stop procrastinating. I’m going to stop procrastinating... I’m going to find her and I’m going to extend the olive branch of diplomacy. Because diplomacy in Greece always went so freaking well.

Okay, I moved on, looking around, I guess I was kind of halfhearted in searching for Charlotte. I was trying, I swear, but... okay, forgive me. I didn’t hate her but I also wasn’t sure if she could say the same thing about me.

I considered asking one of her half siblings, but I’m not sure if that was going to be something that she appreciated in the long run, what with me being the naked girl who embarrassed her in the first place, she didn’t want that same person asking her half siblings around for her. Chances are they probably weren’t too fond of me, either, but that was just them being from the Ares cabin, who were for the most part not too fond of anyone.

Maybe it was me hoping that I might not run into her in time for me to talk with her while I lazily looked around for her, even if that might take a few hours of doing the absolute least, but I was fully content with just walking around and looking back and forth.

But I guess there was one person I could talk to to see if she knew where Charlotte was.

I looked around for Emery, who was easier to find because she tended to make her presence known to those around her. When she was with friends, there was a legion’s worth more life in that circle than there would be without her.

Something stopped me from approaching right away. I guess it’s just me being kind of reluctant to insert myself into someone else’s good time or whatever, but I had to tell myself that this was something I needed to do, and something that I would very much like to get over with, please.

I waved to Emery and then she noticed me, and I guess her friends did, too. I was hard to miss, I know.

“Hey! Molly!” She said with a smile.

“Hey Emery,” I said, smiling back, trying not to focus on the fact that I was some naked weirdo walking into someone’s conversation. “I was just wondering if you knew where Charlotte from the Ares cabin was? I, uh... wanted to talk to her,” I said.

“Um... I’m not sure...” Emery said, thinking for a bit, before one of her friends, a boy from the Dionysus cabin, interrupted.

“I think I saw her heading over that way,” he said, pointing, “to the beach, I think. With a practice sword.”

Great. Something she could hit me with. This was going to go incredibly. Maybe I should bring a practice sword too? Nah, maybe not, that would just encourage her.

“Thanks,” I said, then soon split from them and went on my way over to the beach.

I walked slowly, but sure enough, walking down the beach, feet in this awful sand, I eventually saw her, swinging her sword through the air and moving acrobatically by herself, sand shooting into the air.

I inhaled and I walked over.

She was facing the other way. I opened my mouth but words did not want to come out. I swallowed then tried to speak anyways. “Ch—Charlotte?”

She turned, quickly, looking at me without saying anything. She didn’t look happy to see me, but I would have been surprised if she was.

“What do you want, jiggles?” She asked.

I cringed, looking away, counting to three, and telling myself that I wasn’t here to argue with her. I was here to try and build a bridge, even if that bridge wasn’t to a place where I really wanted to go.

“I was... looking for you... to talk...”

“Not interested,” Charlotte said. “No scram, jiggles, or you’re going to get some sand in very uncomfortable places.”

“I’m... not leaving,” I said, taking steps forward. “I need to talk with you, it’s important.”

“So talk and then get out of my face.”

She was making it really difficult for me to want to try and level with her. I just had to be the bigger person.

I thought for a bit on how I was going to proceed. I could tell her that I wanted to bury the hatchet and not fight anymore and move on with our lives, which I guess had bits and pieces of the truth in it, because I definitely didn’t want her to be my problem for any longer, even if I didn’t care whether or not I would be seeing her again ever. Which I probably was going to.

But maybe I should be honest. Honest in bits and pieces anyways, the same way I was with Chiron and Dionysus.

”I had a dream—” I began.

”Ew, I wasn’t in it, was I, perv?” Charlotte interrupted.

I grit my teeth. I counted up to five this time. “No... you were not,” I said. “Aphrodite came to me in this dream, and said we were going on a quest together.” That one was more a lie, but I didn’t feel the need to dance around different angles of the truth like I did with Chiron and Dionysus. She wasn’t going to challenge me in the same way I was worried they might, and she didn’t present the same kind of consequences.

” _We_ ,” she said. “As in you and me?”

”Yes. We. Me, you, and Amelia.”

”Your narcoleptic friend,” she rolled her eyes. “Are you sure it was really Aphrodite? And not just a dream?”

I nodded. “She gave me a ring in the dream and I woke up with it on.”

”Of course she wouldn’t give you a short or some pants,” Charlotte said.

In a way, she did, but I didn’t feel like explaining to her the ring’s function. I was pretty high on the idea of the thing, and I didn’t want the joy ruined by having Charlotte make fun of it in any way.

”And we’re going on a quest? Us?”

”Yes. I’ve already said that,” I said.

”Great... freaking great,” Charlotte said, swinging her practice sword testily.

”I’m not too happy about the idea, either,” I said.

”Did the Oracle say anything.”

”No. Not yet. The Oracle isn’t here, yet, and I don’t know when she’s going to be here.”

”So it’s not official?”

”Not yet, I guess, but it could be, and I wanted to make sure that if we do end up going on a quest together, there won’t be any problems between us.”

Charlotte scoffed. “You’re worried I can’t be professional,” he said. “Relax, Jiggles, if we have to adventure together, I will work with you as if you were anyone else at this camp.”

I blinked. That went better than expected. “Oh... well... thank you Ch—”

”That doesn’t mean I like you, nudie, or that I’ll enjoy it,” Charlotte said. “I’m just capable of putting that aside if I need to. Satisfied?”

I paused for a bit. Was I satisfied with that? I wasn’t happy, but... it didn’t seem like something I needed to fix.

”Yeah, I guess I am,” I said.

”Good. Now get out of my sight.”

I considered staying just to argue with her, but I nodded and accepted that I made some good progress in spite of myself and who I was talking to. “Talk to you later about this?” I asked.

”Maybe. If I have to. But I’m training now, and you’re the last thing I want to look at.”

_Thing?_

”Bye, Charlotte.”

”Seeya Jiggles,” Charlotte said with a sharp smile.

When I turned away I counted to ten and that was enough for me to not want to turn away and shout at her to stop calling me Jiggles.

That would be later.

For now, I was glad that I did what I came here to do. Now to just go about the rest of the day, maybe even find Amelia.


	14. Expectations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The three images at the top of this fic were crafted and provided by MisterE05. Please check out his work, he has some pretty great things planned out.
> 
> Please read to the bottom for another Kisekae illustration on behalf of OliviaThinksSheCanWrite, as well as a related announcement.

I found Amelia on a metal latticed bench, lying down and sleeping on it, hogging the entire space for herself. I couldn’t imagine that it was too comfortable, but Amelia could probably sleep anywhere. I thought about the marks that it would leave on my body. Same thing if I spent too long on one of those rope hammocks. I’d be a mess and everyone would see every little line criss crossing on my skin.

The things that I sacrifice to be me...

I sat myself uncomfortably on the corner and I looked down on my sleepy friend. I didn’t want to keep waking her up... I just wanted her to be awake.

Considering what this place was, someone or something was going to wake her up, eventually. It might as well be her and not some stray ball, an arrow, or a body.

She poked Amelia awake. She looked up at Molly and she yawned. “Hey Molly. Was I sleeping?”

“A little bit,” I said.

She sat up and left me some room to sit. I sat more fully onto the bench, resigning myself to the fact that my butt was going to have some lines on it by the time that I sat up. So long as Charlotte didn’t see it and come up with some other booty related nickname, I think I could live with it.

“How was your day?” I asked.

“It was good... I guess...”

“You guess?”

“My cabin kept trying to talk to me,” Amelia said.

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked.

“I don’t know... it shouldn’t be, right?” Amelia asked. “They’re being all nice and crap, but... I just don’t know. It’s just kind of weird.”

“How so?”

“It’s just... I don’t know, they were complimenting me on my archery and stuff, and I don’t even think that I did all that good, but they were still all like, ‘now the Hypnos cabin has its own marksman,’ and stuff, and I’m not sure if I want to be looked at that way. Like... they’re expecting something from me. They think I’m good at something.”

“You are good at archery.”

“I was lucky,” Amelia said.

“I don’t think it was just luck,” I said. “I think it’s something you’re a natural in. It happens to demigods sometimes. Things that they just naturally take to and are skilled at.”

“Like archery with a Hypnos kid? That doesn’t sound right at all,” she said.

“Weird things happen,” I said, shrugging. “You should be proud. It took me a lot of practice to get only as good as I am in archery, and I’m not good at it at all.”

Amelia mumbled something, but it didn’t sound like she was trying to say any words, she was just trying to convey feelings through sound. “They’re going to expect too much from me,” she finally said. “They’re just setting themselves up to be disappointed in me. And setting me up to be a disappointment.”

I frowned, inching closer to her. “Why do you think that?”

“I’m just being realistic,” Amelia said.

“You really don’t have to be,” I said. “I mean... you’re the daughter of a Greek god. You’re in a camp run by another Greek god and a Centaur. Your good friend, me, another daughter of another Greek god, just walks around naked and is kind of allowed to. You have visions sometimes when you sleep. I don’t think you really need to be realistic about anything ever again, Amelia.”

“Well, you make some kind of a point,” Amelia said. “I’m just not sure if it applies to me in this situation. Like... like I know they’re happy for me and stuff, but I think they’re making too much of a deal over it. I’m not comfortable with it.”

“Well... look, I think you’re very good at archery, and that you’re a really nice person and stuff,” Molly said, “and I also think that you definitely deserve praise, but it’s valid to feel nervous about it.” I shrugged. “I mean, I think I’m coming from the opposite direction. I’ve been trying so hard for anyone to expect anything of me, so...” I look down at my legs as I kicked my feet back and forth like a pendulum. “But it’s something that I wanted, I guess.”

“Yeah. Attention isn’t really something I’m all that hyped about.”

“I get that,” I said. “I mean, sort of. I kind of draw a bit too much attention to myself, automatically.”

“It’s because you’re pretty,” Amelia said.

“W—what?”

“It’s because you’re naked,” Amelia said with a smile, punching me on the shoulder. “Pay closer attention, Molly.”

“I... yeah, okay,” I said, my body unsure whether or not I should be blushing in a few different places right now. I knew what I heard the first time, but... I wasn’t properly equipped to ask about it. Not now, anyways. Not with what we were talking about before. I was still on that subject, and I wasn’t about to be distracted by hormones or anything. “Amelia, if you ever want to um... talk about...” my train of thought was derailed. I tried to get back on track, but I kept replaying the sound of her calling me pretty in my head, over and over again, very quickly. “I’m just trying to say that if you ever need to talk, I am always available to do that, um... to talk with you, I mean. Is what I’m saying.”

“Thanks, Molly.”

“I think you’re pretty awesome,” I said, “and I’m saying that because I’m being honest. I’m very honest, after all. Part of why I’m naked. Because it’s honest.”

“You’re making that up.”

“As I go along, yeah,” I said, laughing, and she smiled at that, too. “But I’m not lying about being honest. If you need me to tell you what I honestly think, and for you to know that it’s not just your siblings hyping you up and getting their opinions way too high, you can always ask me.”

She thinned her lips and looked down. “Okay... thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Molly?”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“You think I’m... good, right?”

I smiled. “Yeah. I think you’re pretty great, Amelia,” I said. Then something came to my head. “Oh yeah... I meant to tell you something.”

I told her all about me meeting with Dionysus and Chiron and Charlotte, and about what I told them, about the vision and the quest, and told Amelia that I left open the option for her to also tell Dionysus and Chiron about things from her point of view, but that she also didn’t need to.

“Okay... I guess you did what you had to... kind of feels weird having more people knowing. Makes it feel real... like I might actually have to... quest and crap.” She yawned.

“It will be okay. You will be okay, because you’re good. Good and great.”

“Thanks, Molly,” Amelia said, but she didn’t sound so sure about that. “I guess I’ll tell them about my visions... tomorrow. And about Charlotte, too, I suppose. I guess then they can help me... help me train...” she started to drift off.”

“Are you tired, Amelia?” I asked.

“Always,” Amelia said.

“I can let you sleep, I guess. If you want to.”

“Please?” Amelia asked with a lazy smile.

“Then I’ll get going,” I said, beginning to get up, but she touched my arm to stop me.

“Wait,” she said. “Do you have to be anywhere?” She asked.

”I... no. Not really.”

”Good. Can you stay with me for a bit then?”

”Oh, um, sure. Why?”

”I need a pillow,” Amelia said.

”A Pi—” I began, interrupted by Amelia lying down and resting her head on top of my lap, her hand gently set atop my knee, her ear brushing against my bush. I was frozen. “I m—mean sure I g—guess you can...”

She started snoring. She was already asleep.

I looked down. It was hard to believe she was here, sleeping directly on my lap, and not only that, but doing it on purpose.

It was... very comfortable. Her head fit very nicely on my lap, and the quick glances I got from the other campers were hardly too embarrassing to prevent me from deeply enjoying this.

I just had to hope that Charlotte would never see this...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Above Kisekae image made and provided by OliviaThinksSheCanWrite.
> 
> The idea to put a little comic panel at the end of all my Molly Kimura chapters started with MisterE05’s pictures at the top of the chapter, but since he had other commitments and I wasn’t familiar with Kisekae, I had turned to OliviaThinksSheCanWrite, who gladly created a few pictures for me.
> 
> Starting now, all chapters will have a funny, cute little comic at the end of it provided by OliviaThinksSheCanWrite. This includes older chapters, with the comics for chapters 1-4 already up!
> 
> Hope you enjoy and keep on reading, and please check out the works by MisterE05 and OliviaThinksSheCanWrite!


End file.
